 | This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance. (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The waterside hot water hay pellet furnace is a technology that was developed to convert grass and hay into an energy that can be used in home heating. It's also known as grass pellet heating.
The waterside hot water hay pellet furnace was invented by Gus Swanson, a farmer from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Swanson came up with the idea while searching for an affordable alternative to home heating with oil after the price of oil began to increase. Swanson and two others, Philip Landry and Jim Trussler, created LST Energy Inc. as a way to grow and build their hay pellet furnace technology.
Development and method of operation
The waterside hot water hay pellet furnace converts hay pellets into energy by burning them in a furnace, wood stove, or pellet stove. The hay pellets are made from dried field hay (grass) that is harvested at the end of the season and then pressed into pellets.
Swanson collaborated with a Pictou furnace maker, a Cape Breton pellet machine company, and scientists at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College to develop the furnace.
The temperature in the water chamber of the furnace can reach the boiling point within seven minutes, and at that rate, the furnace can burn off the majority of the ash and leave little waste. Once development was complete on the furnace, the final working prototype of the waterside hay hot water pellet furnace was 45 inches tall and around a foot in diameter. It can burn 50 – 125 pounds of pellets per day and releases 30,000 – 190,000 BTUs (British thermal units) per hour.
It is estimated that it will take 8,100 square meters of grass to heat an average Canadian home per year.
Key partners in development
Swanson and his company have received grants to help assist in the patent and safety certification testing from Agri-Futures Nova Scotia, which is the provincial distributor of funds through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) Program.
LST Energy Inc. received a $100,000 prize offered by Innovacorporation for winning first place in a regional technology start-up competition in 2010.
The Nova Scotia Agricultural College aided LST Energy Inc. in developing the hay pellet furnace. In 2009, when LST Energy advanced to the final round of the regional technology start-up competition, they had one of their completed prototypes installed and fully operational at the Agricultural College.
A company in Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia was recruited to produce the hay pellets suitable for use in the furnace.
References
- ^ Jones, Heather. "NS farmer has an answer to energy and greenhouse gas problems". Farm Focus of Atlantic Canada. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved Dec 23, 2022.
- ^ CBC (2011, Sept 13). Farmers learn about converting grass into fuel. CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/farmers-learn-about-converting-grass-into-fuel-1.990365
- ^ Kelly, S. "Pictou County Company wins a $100,000 Prize". Farm Focus of Atlantic Canada. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved Dec 23, 2022.
- ^ Goodwin, Steve. "Farmer says he's found a way to create heat from hay". The Advocate. Archived from the original on May 30, 2012. Retrieved Dec 23, 2022.
External links
- Hot Water Furnace Burns Hay Pellets, FARM SHOW Magazine, 2011 - Volume #BFS, Issue #11, Page #50