Advances in European cord wood testing and policy

Wood stoves have the potential of providing CO2-neutral energy without transmission loss—but with the significant drawbacks of high emissions of pollutants and particulate matter at low altitude close to private homes, and with an uneven heat release profile, which produces non-optimal heating comfort.A collaboration project between the CHEC research centre at DTU Chemical Engineering and the stove manufacturing company HWAM A/S has led to development of an automatic control system forwood stoves, and the first version of an automatically controlled wood stove was launched on the market in 2012.

The automatic control system developed for wood stoves in this project ensures optimal combustion conditions, thereby minimizing the emissions throughout a complete wood log combustion cycle. This improved performance has been verified by field tests in private homes.