The decarbonisation of the residential heating sector is one of the main drivers to reduce the EU fossil-fuel dependence and to boost renewable energy sources while improving the urban air quality. In contrast to electric and fossil fuel fired heaters, pellet stoves offer renewable heating for single rooms or low energy houses. However, while pellet stoves typically achieve low pollutant emissions during pre-commercial testing, these emissions often surpass certification limits when users operate them at home. Current solutions involve installation of extra filters that can double the investment costs of the entire heating system. RIKA, European market leader in wood stoves, aims at a significant extension of its product portfolio by the final development and commercialization of cleanFIRE. It constitutes a milestone in pellet-based space heating because it enables for the first time an almost zero CO, OGC and PM emission free combustion without the application of extra dust filters. cleanFIRE's controlled transformation of the pellets into combustible gas forms its innovation core (as verified by tests performed using its gasifier and burner prototypes). In this project the new technology shall be further optimised in order to pass type testing at project end. Leveraging on EU climate targets, our innovation and current market consolidation with other pellet and logwood stoves, we will start cleanFIRE's commercialization in 2022 targeting homeowners looking for 1) the replacement of an oil/gas/coal-fuelled or oversized heating appliance, and 2) those aiming to buy a new space heating appliance. We will initially enter the market across Austria, and through our well-established network of importers and retailers across Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and selected Eastern and Southern European countries. We expect to sell at least 9,000 cleanFIRE units by 2024 reaching a cumulative profit of EUR 9.88M (ROI: 2.84) and hiring 8 new team members.
https://sme.easme-web.eu/?p=866595 |
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020