I recently discovered some heaters based on "bio fuel" (ethanol).
Many products seem to be decorative and often present a modern design.
Some ethanol burners can be used in empty fireplaces and can deliver some moderate heating power.
It seems also that the emissions are very low, and there's usually no need for using a chimney.
Do you think that a solution based on ethanol can be used as a main heating source for a flat?
Anything that burns will provide some heat, it will also provide some exhaust.
At today's prices you can save a dollar per gallon by using ethanol over home heating oil. The problem is that you really shouldn't care about price per gallon, you should care about price per amount of energy released.
Heating oil is about 141 Mega-Joules per gallon. Ethanol is about 70 Mega-Joules per gallon 100% Ethanol.
At $3.60 / gallon for heating oil, it is a bargain compared to $2.72 for 85% ethanol, because you would need to buy two gallons to equal the amount of theoretical heat available in one gallon of heating oil. It is even more of a bargain than 95% ethanol (denatured), at $29.31 per gallon. Note that we won't consider 100% ethanol, as opening the container tends to suck enough humidity from the air to make it 95%.
$3.60 for ~141 MegaJoules of heating oil (1 gallon)
$6.40 for ~141 MegaJoules of 85% ethanol (2.35 gallons)
$62.15 for ~141 MegaJoules of 95% ethanol (2.12 gallons)
It is not a fuel with a high energy capacity, so you'll need a lot of it. Cheap sources are not very pure, and are poisoned (to prevent sales on the alcohol market) that means that "burns cleanly" isn't going to apply unless you want even more expensive forms of ethanol.
Some claim that one can recover more heat from burning ethanol as all of the combustive products (including all of the heat) can be captured in the room. This is highly inadvisable unless you use a double-burn setup, guaranteeing the complete combustion of Ethanol. Partial oxidation of Ethanol produces acetaldehyde which is quite harmful to lungs and belongings. Also, most Ethanol is denatured, meaning it has poisons purposefully added to it to prevent consumption (avoiding the alcohol taxes). The by products of burning the denatured additives are varied and generally unwanted (if not also poisonous).
Partial combustion by-products, like acetaldehyde, are very damaging to certain plastics, making installation costs higher (or hiding those costs in future repair bills).
It makes sense in some places, but in home heating it's not a winning choice unless other factors increase the costs of more mundane solutions.
This is a great article. I took a semester off of college two semesters ago to try to find all the right resources to make this venture possible. But, as Edwin ran the numbers, which I would agree are pretty accurate considering the price fluctuations, it is hard to make money trying to sell ethanol as a means of heat for buildings.
After traveling to SP, Brazil and negotiating prices with E85 producers the cost per gallon/liter is too high. Plus the E85 tariff the US places on sugar cane ethanol from Brazil and the boiler system every building would have to replace.
One suggestion would be to find a different means of bio-fuel. Keep in mind that people don't want to replace what they already have for something that isn't going to save them money or fuel less at twice the cost, granted it is better for the environment. Let's face it, it all comes down the impact it has on our wallets.
One thing you need to consider in the comparison between e-85 ethanol versus heating oil, propane, and natural gas, is that while the energy in Mega-Joules is higher for the last three, heating oil, propane, and natural gas all produce Carbon Monoxide and other waste products which have to be exhausted to the outdoors.
A huge amount of heat (energy) is lost when these fuels have to be isolated by heat exchangers and additional exhaust fans to move the exhaust out and the air past the exchangers, as well as water systems. With ethanol it is possible with only light air intake (to avoid asphyxiation) to directly generate heat energy with very little carbon monoxide. Yes, there is 15 percent gasoline in e85, but the amount is quite usable in indoor environments. Operation of such devices require sensors to avoid CO and oxygen deprivation, and there are small amounts of other bi-products associated with ethanol, but with electronically controlled burner systems, these products can be safely minimized.
I have personally experimented with e-85 heating to heat a two bedroom, one bath, one kitchen apartment. I was able to keep a reasonably comfortable temperature, in fact, sometimes too hot, for about $10 per month!! This is in the dead of winter in Wisconsin, USA, with temperatures outside at -22F in 2013 and early 2014.
The reason why there are few manufacturers of these heaters is that consumers could accidentally or intentionally put gasoline in these units, which can quickly kill them with Carbon Monoxide. My controller was mechanical, and electronics would probably increase the efficiency quite a bit. If you used it alot, you could conceivably obtain unsafe levels of CO from the gasoline component in most e85, although sensors both mechanical and electronic can make operation safe. A small momentary exhaust fan would improve the product, venting out the cool down alcohol vapors when the unit is turned off.
I filled a one gallon gasoline tank twice a month. My system was a direct open air dual burner, with heat shielding. Just experimental, I had problems with start up and controlling the fuel pressure, as the fuel would burn differently from cold to warm. The initial setup, and my future electronically controlled system would use vehicle fuel injectors, a fuel pump, a small air blower, and temperature sensors.
When I used this system, my apartment smelled weakly like hops, without the strong sugary component. One person even asked me if I was making beer!
It's an interesting idea. Conceivably, any combustible fuel could be used for home heating. In practice, the dominant fuels for home heating are natural gas (methane), propane gas, home heating oil, and electricity. Wood stoves and built-in heaters powered by fuels such as kerosene are also available, but typically used as accessory heat or used in locations where other fuels are unavailable.
After some googling, it doesn't look like ethanol-fueled home furnaces or boilers are mass-produced. I can imagine a couple of reasons for this:
There may be other reasons as well. Overall, it looks like if you want to use ethanol for built-in whole-house heating, you will be undertaking an unusual experiment. If you have a low cost source of ethanol, perhaps you can achieve most of your heating needs using portable ethanol burners. However, if you want to be able to sell your flat, it would be wiser to invest in a more mainstream heating system for whole-house heat.
