FAQs

Our plan is to have the commercial HERU in production in 2022.

As you can imagine, the mix of material that can be placed in the HERU will be different in most properties. The moisture levels will vary too. The dryer the matter the better the Co-Efficiency of Performance (COP). An average mix in the home is about 35% moisture. From this, a COP of about 2.5 is expected. For each kWh of electric used in the HERU, the HERU produces up to 2 kWh of energy into the hot water system.

For companies, there will also be the saving in the cost of disposal. Imagine using coffee cups, used coffee granules and milk bottles to make hot water to make coffee. We believe this is the circular economy in practice.

Yes, the Government part-funded the proof of concept in 2017 through its Game Changing Fund.

Worcestershire Country Council’s carbon reduction program part-funded the first field trial HERU’s.

Wychavon District Council, Rugby Borough Council and Stratford upon Avon District Council were the first 3 Councils to trial the units. The technical evaluation units completed over 10,000 running hours in the field. The next stage is the assembly, testing and certification of the 240L pre-production HERU.

We have to remember, the resources within our homes and businesses belong to you, not the Council unless you choose to discard them and present them to the Council. The current system of collecting and processing material comes at an overall cost to each Council.

The “power” is literally in your hands.

No, there are no toxic fumes or bad smells released and the HERU DOES NOT release its exhaust directly to the atmosphere. The HERU is an air-tight system. The chamber is NOT a pressure vessel. The pressure relief is very low at 0.07 bar. The process of pyrolysis produces gas, this gas is delivered to a small storage tank which will be located outside the building on a wall. The tank is 25 litres in volume and the gas is compressed to 4.8 bar of pressure, therefore holding around 125 litres of Syngas (less than compressed gas in the fridge). The gas is then released to the domestic boiler along a metal pipe through a regulator just the same as mains gas or LPG enters your home/business.

Yes, we are currently designing and building a commercial sized HERU for adult care homes, restaurants and hotels and commercial properties. In the future we plan to have a range of HERU sizes.

The early adopter home units will be approximately £19,800 + VAT.

The early adopter commercial HERU units will be approximately £30,000 + VAT.

Our aim is to make the HERU no more expensive than that of a floor mounted boiler. When produced in large numbers on production lines, we hope the cost will continue to become more and more affordable with excellent engineering practices and innovation.

Yes, it will. The HERU has been tested and will be certified as a system using the super intelligent BAXI 128 combi. This incredible boiler will switch from 28KW to just 4KW to utilise the HERU gas if the home doesn’t require energy at that particular time. The BAXI has a sensor that senses which gas it’s combusting.

Yes, it will take all plastic packaging.

The HERU doesn’t just take plastic milk bottles and drinks bottle, it will utilise difficult plastics like yoghurt pots, clingfilm, black food trays, plastic bags from supermarkets and plastics that have been in contact with food, ear wax cleaners and nappies (which traditionally are problematic for recycling).

All you will require is a standard 32 amp interlink commando RCD protected socket, a standard 43mm ID plastic drain to sewer (or larger), a mains water supply 15mm/22mm and a gas supply 22mm.

You may decide you would like the HERU outside where your wheelie bin used to sit or inside the garage on an outside wall or on an outside wall.

The future generation of HERUs will likely evolve into front loaders like a traditional dishwasher, meaning the HERU could then be installed where you currently place your uneaten food, plastic containers, paper and card.

For larger commercial premises, like restaurants, and hotels, the HERU is likely to be outside the kitchen itself.

The HERU in pyrolysis mode produces gas, whilst the gas is being produced at a low-temperature pyrolysis (achieved by the patented heat pipe technology) it also releases chlorine which condenses on the heat exchangers. This chlorine is then sent to the sewer with the water. We know chlorine in water is commonplace, however, we don’t want the chlorine to remain in the char which we will later combust. If left in the char it creates dioxins. With no chlorine present dioxins are not formed during the combustion phase. A huge breakthrough!

This gas is sent to the boiler down a metal pipe (just like it does with your normal gas or oil) and is then combusted by the boiler. While the HERU is releasing the gas to your boiler, your boiler will slow down the gas it takes from the mains supply.

In simple terms, the exhaust of the HERU is your boiler exhaust.

The HERU in combustion mode produces exhaust just like your BBQ and this exhaust is cleaned using our patented water screen filter. The exhaust is scrubbed with high-pressure water mixed with a small amount of detergent. The detergent contains potassium. This solution scrubs the exhaust removing the nitrogen oxides and puts them in the water/ potassium/detergent solution which creates nitrates. The nitrate solution is processed by the sewerage company. Nitrates are good when applied correctly to the land at the correct time of the year as fertiliser.

The exhaust is then sent to your boiler and the boiler combusts the non-combusted carbon (essentially recovering energy) and at the same time acts like the catalytic convertor on your car exhaust, cleaning the exhaust to continue meeting boiler regulations.

The journey of the ash is very interesting as it is a valuable resource too. The ash from the HERU has been tested repeatedly at Brunel University in London and is alkaline in substance, which is good for balancing the acid in soils and other environments.

The HERU recovers any fats in the ash (which essentially is energy leaving the ash) which will assist with the cleaning of the drains and at the same time reduce some acidity in the sewage system that can be caused by the gas boiler condensate.

The ash journey from the HERU offers a great way to start battling the tide of fat burgs that are growing within our sewers.

It is also interesting to note that the ash contains Lye. Lye when mixed with animal fat was how soap was invented (lye being the gritty substance in soap).

This is interesting, as the amount of packaging is at an incredible level  – indeed, you can’t quite imagine how we could package products anymore. We believe the HERU will help drive renewables. It will enable creative packaging innovation through design and materials. Retailers have this conundrum whereby they must make packaging look appealing but at the same time recyclable while the dynamics of recycling are changing at a pace we have not seen before. China, for example, is not taking mixed plastics and mixed paper must be less than 0.5% contaminated. Any sign of food in a pizza box, the UK and Chinese authorities have the right and indeed the power to return the entire container load of recyclables back to the licensed recycling facility it departed from and then an investigation is likely to take place.

We believe that packaging is resource. This resource comes in through your front door. When you turn your thermostat up the resource is in the form of oil or gas and comes up the pipe into your home/business, it is the same thing as packaging just in a different form, except your packaging is serving a purpose before you turn it into energy. The more the consumer drives retailers to renewable packaging the greater the percentage of renewable energy the home/business consumes, displacing the fossil fuel coming up the pipe.

The HERU uses a process called Pyrolysis. This heats matter in the absence of oxygen. To incinerate is to burn and to burn you must have oxygen. So, the HERU does not incinerate the resource you place in it, rather it turns the matter into gas and a tiny amount of oil and a lot of char.

Your gas boiler burns the gas just the same as it burns the gas from the mains gas supply (which incidentally will have been created by pyrolysis). The tiny amount of oil is mixed with detergent and flushed just like washing a frying pan and dirty dishes in a dishwasher. The HERU then let’s air into the chamber, the char is then combusted within the HERU and looks like a BBQ inside glowing away, giving exhaust just like your boiler which runs over heat exchangers to heat your water.

Yes, the HERU is being designed so that it will work in countries with different voltage systems (subject to certification).

No, the HERU can be used in all sorts of environments where we live, work, play and enjoy ourselves.

You will be left with a small number of clean recyclables (glass and metal) which may be collected from your home/business once a month or perhaps every other month.

Clean glass and metals are amongst the more stable of recyclables and can be mainly processed within the country of origin reducing road transportation and shipping.

Batteries, electrical goods, children’s toys and other larger items for recycling that wouldn’t normally fit in your bin can be taken to the recycling points recommended by your local authority.

The HERU DOES NOT release its exhaust directly to the atmosphere. The HERU exhaust is piped to the boiler. The boiler becomes the catalytic converter cleaning the exhaust to meet the standards the boiler is required to meet. While using the gas from the HERU, the boiler uses less gas off the grid.

The domestic HERU will have a similar footprint to your residential and garden “waste” bins combined, so our recommendation is that it is situated outside.

On average, about 2.5 kilos per day. The current domestic HERU size will hold 7 kilos of food and about 4 kilos of fully mixed material. The initial commercial HERU will have a 240L capacity.

We do advise that no metals are placed in the HERU, but any metal objects that are accidentally placed in the upper part of the chamber (10mm or above) will remain in the chamber and should be removed after the process and then recycled as advised by your local authority. Any metal objects sub 10mm will go through the screen and will be caught in a U-bend pipe (like under your sink). You would then clean out and recycle as advised by your local authority.

The 3 technical evaluation units trialled in Worcestershire and Warwickshire have completed over 10,000 running hours in the field. The next stage is the assembly, testing and certification of the 240L pre-production HERU.

*Information accurate at time of writing – July 2021