First British business installs innovative UK greentech solution

A UK innovation that takes items previously destined for landfill and uses them to heat water has successfully been installed at Hillers Farm Shop in Worcestershire.

The HERU can help users save up to 15 per cent on fuel bills while reducing their overall carbon footprint.

The HERU takes household items, which would have ended up in landfill, and heats them with the absence of oxygen, allowing pyrolysis to occur.

The resources become char, oil, and gas, and the HERU processes the oil, so it is safe to discharge and utilises the gas and heat that has been produced together with a domestic boiler.

A single cycle of the 19 litre home sited HERU has produce a 30°C temperature rise for around 70 to 120 litres of water per day.

According to environmental consultants Ricardo, the HERU also has 300 per cent less global warming impact than co-mingled recycling collections and 280 per cent less than kerbside recycling collections compared to traditional waste collections.

The HERU unit at Hillers will be used as part of continuing technical trials, following a recent operational HERU at Wychavon District Council.

The unit will be monitored in real-time, in order to assess the progress around energy efficiency, usability, and qualification criteria for the Renewable Heat Incentive for cardboard, paper, food, and trimmings.

Emma Taylor, for Hillers Farm Shop, said: “We have been looking forward to taking delivery of the HERU, which we are happy to announce is now in situ at our restaurant. We are filling the HERU daily with food offcuts and packaging, thus greatly reducing the waste that has to be collected.”

“Whilst we are all so conscious of waste in this day and age, we are astonished at the technology and the results that this machine can achieve which, in turn, have such a positive impact on the environment. This advancement is enabling us to be constructive in our need to eradicate unnecessary waste and, with such a technical machine, the process is so simple for us to use.”

Nik Spencer, CEO and Inventor of HERU, said: “We are absolutely thrilled that the HERU is up and running at Hillers.”

“The feedback that HERU received from everyone at Wychavon District Council is fantastic and it is great to hear that those who are using the HERU everyday felt that it made a very noticeable difference to both the amount of resource that was being disposed of previously and the energy contained in the resource, once discarded as waste, can be utilised whilst reducing CO2 emissions.”