The invention concerns a district energy system comprising: - at least one cogeneration or heat pump unit, - a first pipe system for district heating and/or cooling consisting of at least one liquid or vapor CO.sub.2 pipe; characterized by the fact that is also comprises a second pipe system consisting of at least one fluid line for the transport of CO.sub.2 or O.sub.2. The invention also relates to the use of a district energy system comprising: - at least one cogeneration or heat pump unit, - a first pipe system, - a second pipe system; characterized by the fact that that liquid or vapor CO.sub.2 is used in the first pipe system for district heating and/or cooling and that a fluid of CO.sub.2 or O.sub.2 is used in the second pipe system.

A heat transfer system includes a conduit having open first and second ends, first and second thermal exchange segments disposed in-between and in fluid communication with the ends, and a means for adding fluid to the first end. The first thermal exchange segment is disposed underneath and in thermal communication with the ground, a body of water, or other location with a different temperature. The first and second ends are arranged above all other section of conduit and relative to one another so that they are communicating vessels and a change in fluid level in one changes the fluid level in the other. The means for adding fluid to the first end of the conduit causes fluid to flow freely from the first end to the second end and fluid level to rise in the second overcoming any hydrostatic pressure in the system without a pump disposed along the conduit.

Existing approaches to refuse handling are all based on historical approaches which rely on a network of refuse collection vehicles collecting waste from individual households and delivering this to a centralised landfill or MBI location. This is highly undesirable and wasteful. An alternative process is disclosed, relying on the thermal treatment of waste and like products produced or brought in to the residential property and processed within the domestic curtilage to produce fuel or other forms of energy. Thus, domestic waste will be thermally treated at the home instead of being collected by local authorities and disposed of. The waste input put material will be loaded into a domestically engineered thermal conversion unit either directly or after a pre-process such as shredding. The feedstock will be converted into fuels by a thermal treatment, such as pyrolysis. The resultant output of oil and gas can either be stored or fed into a boiler unit to be used as a fuel to produce hot water, or used to run an electricity generating unit to power the dwelling in question or for supply to a feed-in tariff. Thus, a domestic dwelling includes a thermal treatment unit for processing waste produced in the dwelling, an output of the thermal treatment unit being combusted for producing an energy output for the dwelling. A suitable pyrolysis chamber is disclosed.

Existing approaches to refuse handling are all based on historical approaches which rely on a network of refuse collection vehicles collecting waste from individual households and delivering this to a centralised landfill or MBI location. This is highly undesirable and wasteful. An alternative process is disclosed, relying on the thermal treatment of waste and like products produced or brought in to the residential property and processed within the domestic curtilage to produce fuel or other forms of energy. Thus, domestic waste will be thermally treated at the home instead of being collected by local authorities and disposed of. The waste input put material will be loaded into a domestically engineered thermal conversion unit either directly or after a pre-process such as shredding. The feedstock will be converted into fuels by a thermal treatment, such as pyrolysis. The resultant output of oil and gas can either be stored or fed into a boiler unit to be used as a fuel to produce hot water, or used to run an electricity generating unit to power the dwelling in question or for supply to a feed-in tariff. Thus, a domestic dwelling includes a thermal treatment unit for processing waste produced in the dwelling, an output of the thermal treatment unit being combusted for producing an energy output for the dwelling. A suitable pyrolysis chamber is disclosed.

A heating device, preferably for the combustion of biomass, in particular of pellets of biomass, in one aspect, includes a burner part and a heating part. The burner part includes a combustion chamber; a double-walled, internally hollow combustion-chamber wall, which has an upper opening leading above the combustion zone into the combustion chamber; a flue-gas duct which leads the flue gas downwards along the combustion chamber, wherein the flue-gas duct is followed by a heat-exchanger area including initially, a flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger, then, a tertiary-air heat exchanger; a flue-gas ventilation stack, a radiant-heat exchanger located above the combustion chamber, a flue-gas flap at the upper end of the flue-gas duct, which, when open, connects the flue-gas duct to the stack. A flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger of the heating part forms a heat-exchanger circuit with an exhaust-air heat exchanger with the same heat-transfer medium as the flat-tube flue-gas heat exchanger.

The present disclosure relates to particle-based thermal energy storage (TES) systems employed for the heating and cooling applications for residential and/or commercial buildings. Particle-based TES systems may store thermal energy in the particles during off-peak times (i.e., when electricity demand and/or costs are relatively low) and remove the stored thermal energy for heating or cooling applications for buildings during peak times (i.e., when electricity demand and/or costs are relatively high).

A looped, pump assisted heat pipe system is provided including an underground well bore providing a vertical distance between an evaporator and a condenser of the system. The system includes a fluid loop with a circulating fluid, an evaporator arranged in the fluid loop configured to evaporate circulating fluid in a liquid state to a vapor and a condenser arranged in the fluid loop in the underground well bore configured to condense the vapor into the liquid state. A pump can be arranged at the base of the well bore, in the fluid loop between the condenser and the evaporator configured to pump circulating fluid in the liquid state to the evaporator. The system can be used in heating or cooling air for buildings and structures and water sources.

A system and method of igniting a coal air-fuel mixture, including a burner having a burner tube operable to carry a flowing mixture of fuel and air to a furnace for combustion therein and a first flow directing device disposed within the tube, operable to direct a first portion of the flowing fuel and air mixture to a location in the burner tube. The system also includes a laser igniter within the burner tube, the laser igniter including a laser tube having a first end with a laser light input and a second end with a light output, and a laser light source operably coupled to the laser light input. The laser light source, including a laser. The laser ignitor directing photons from the light output at the location in the burner tube to ignite at least a part of the first portion of the fuel.

A method of operating a heating and cooling system includes (1) providing a heating and/or cooling apparatus having first and second heat exchangers, (2) providing a conduit module modularly coupled to the heating and/or cooling apparatus and adapted to be coupled to a plurality of fluid circuits for heating or cooling loads, and (3) operating a control system configured to operate the conduit module in a heating or cooling mode. The conduit module is positioned between the heating and/or cooling apparatus and the plurality of fluid circuits. The conduit module includes first, second, and third supply conduits and first, second, and third return conduits, to convey first, second, and source fluids to and from respective first, second, and source fluid circuits. The conduit module includes first, second, third, and fourth three-way valves to selectively regulate flow of the first, second, and source fluids.

A method of operating a heating and cooling system includes (1) providing a heating and/or cooling apparatus having first and second heat exchangers, (2) providing a conduit module modularly coupled to the heating and/or cooling apparatus and adapted to be coupled to a plurality of fluid circuits for heating or cooling loads, and (3) operating a control system configured to operate the conduit module in a heating or cooling mode. The conduit module is positioned between the heating and/or cooling apparatus and the plurality of fluid circuits. The conduit module includes first, second, and third supply conduits and first, second, and third return conduits, to convey first, second, and source fluids to and from respective first, second, and source fluid circuits. The conduit module includes first, second, third, and fourth three-way valves to selectively regulate flow of the first, second, and source fluids.