How Does Green Boiler Technology Work?

People have become progressively interested in green boiler technology for their households and businesses. That’s due to numerous driving factors, such as increasing awareness of the need for collective action to mitigate climate change’s effects and a desire to save energy.

Thus, many are curious about the benefits of a green boiler and how installing one at a home or commercial building could help meet energy-efficiency and eco-friendliness goals. Here’s a look at how green boilers work and how they’re becoming more common in today’s society.

What Are the Main Categories of Green Boiler Technology?

Green boilers encompass a broad category of possibilities and each one works differently. Plus, the definition of a green boiler remains fluid. Whereas some models are merely ultra energy efficient, others use the Earth’s resources to work and are less dependent on fossil fuels. The primary options include the following.

Biomass Boilers

Biomass boilers work similarly to conventional boilers in that they burn fuel that produces heat for a home or company. However, biomass boilers use wood chips, pellets, logs and other biological materials for power

Those materials get fed with an automatic feed hopper or by hand into a combustion chamber and ignited to produce hot gas and air. The gas and air go through a flue and heat exchanger, which transfers heat to the water that’s part of a property’s central heating. Biomass boilers can also store excess heat in a tank called a buffer vessel.

Hydrogen-Powered Boilers

Some people are interested in making their natural gas boilers compatible with hydrogen instead. Hydrogen boilers function similarly to those that use natural gas. Moreover, people have been running boilers with natural gas-hydrogen blends for the last several decades. However, rising percentages for the amounts of hydrogen used make this an increasingly green boiler technology.

One real-world example comes from a Texas chemical plant that has used partial hydrogen blends to run its boilers for the last 15 years. The boiler setup uses natural gas, residual cracker gas and off-gas containing various amounts of hydrogen. The overall hydrogen content is still less than 8.5%, however.

People interested in seeing the benefits of green boilers via hydrogen must realize they’ll likely need to make some minor system alterations. Those include larger piping since hydrogen requires bigger volumes to get heating outcomes comparable to natural gas.

Renewable Energy-Powered Boilers

Green boiler technology is often more efficient than conventional options. However, people can achieve efficiency gains in other ways, too. One option is to pursue a linkageless burner upgrade. It can cause up to a 5% increase in combustion outcomes and fuel-to-steam efficiency. However, when people decide they’re ready to experience the benefits of green boilers, they might do so by choosing options powered by renewable energy.

Caldera is a British startup marketing renewable energy-powered boilers to breweries. The containerized boilers use a patented technology that takes surplus energy from on-site solar panels or nearby wind farms. It then stores it and later releases it as high-pressure steam.

Timo Leukefeld GmbH — which focuses on energy-efficient and sustainable living — targets homeowners in Switzerland, Austria and Germany with green boiler technology. They can purchase a household unit that heats hot water with excess energy from rooftop solar panels. It also has two AC heating rods, one of which operates with power from the home’s solar panels.

The heating rod connected to the solar panels warms water between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The other heating rod only activates when the boiler’s water falls below 122° Fahrenheit. That setup allows homeowners to become less dependent on the grid. The company’s owner said users could achieve about 70% self-sufficiency for domestic hot water production within a year by using this technology.

Zero-Emission Boilers

Homeowners and business leaders alike want better visibility over heating costs. That’s one of the reasons why many companies collect real-time data and use it to inform and enhance operations. Similarly, homeowners can use options like thermostats that connect to digital dashboards and smartphone apps. They can then monitor aspects like energy consumption, overall usage and cost-related trends.

Company owners are frequently concerned with lowering emissions to meet internal targets or industry benchmarks. Additionally, homeowners are getting more interested in measuring their carbon footprints and looking for ways to improve. Zero-emission boilers appeal to both groups.

A United Kingdom-based company called tepeo specializes in low and no-emission heating options. It’s leading the way in zero-emission boilers. The company’s electric model can work alongside other renewable energy options, such as solar panels.

Its green boiler technology features an insulated storage core in the boiler’s center. When a user needs heat or hot water, airflow around the core pushes warmth to the heat exchanger. Water moves through the heat exchanger, becomes warm and is then available for use in a home. There is also a heat-storage aspect to these zero-emission boilers. Some models store up to 40 kilowatt-hours and charge at 9 kilowatt-hours per hour.

What Are the Benefits of Green Boilers?

People have various reasons for wanting to enjoy the benefits of a green boiler. Many of them are cost-related.

In British Columbia, Canada, people at the campus of Selkirk College recently installed a biomass boiler. The project cost $1.8 million, but people involved with it expect significant advantages. More specifically, the installation should result in at least a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases. Those associated with the institution also expect $15,000 in savings from natural gas purchases and $4,000 worth of carbon offset payments.

Another benefit of a green boiler is the fuel source is often much more localized than conventional boilers. Scotland’s Nc’nean Distillery — which offers sustainable and organic whisky — has an on-site biomass boiler to heat copper stills. It uses wood chips from a commercial forest two miles away as a power source. Plus, all trees downed for wood chip creation get new ones planted in their places.

As mentioned in some of the above examples, green boiler technology helps people live or operate businesses in more environmentally friendly ways. However, some might need some convincing first. In one example, OVO Energy launched a trial to encourage households to try tepeo’s zero-emission boilers.

Participants will get the boilers for free during the trial. Some expected benefits of green boilers throughout the test period are a 40% reduction in annual carbon emissions and lower energy bills since the electric boilers charge when energy rates are the least expensive.

Green Boiler Technology Is Gaining Momentum 

This overview shows people have no shortage of options if they’re interested in experiencing the benefits of green boilers. However, they’re most likely to get the best results by thinking carefully about their goals, budget and other specifics associated with potential projects.