The HERU, a UK innovation that takes everyday items, such as coffee cups, nappies and plastics, and converts them into energy to heat water for households and commercial buildings, is already utilising Siemens’ technology. Items such as the innovative PLC controller on the HERU, takes input from the unit via sensors and transmitters and generates useful and desired outputs to control the unit. The Siemens display unit at the front of the machine allows customer interaction with their HERU.
The announcement follows the appointment of James Clark Technologies as UK manufacturer for the commercial HERU. It builds on the expertise provided by the UK's Manufacturing Technology Centre, who have been working with HERU since 2018.
“We are absolutely delighted to be working alongside a multinational company like Siemens” said Founder and CEO of HERU, Nik Spencer. “Their knowledge, experience and expertise of mass industrial manufacturing is invaluable to the production of the HERU and we look forward to working with them closely to help drive the future innovation of both the domestic and commercial HERU units. This is a significant moment in bringing the HERU to market and builds upon both the excellent results of the ongoing field trials and the independent lifecycle assessment from Ricardo Energy & Environment. With support from Siemens, we can continue to refine the HERU in preparation for early adopter units later this year.”
Professor Alan Norbury, Chief Technologist, Digital Industries, Siemens plc, added that Siemens is excited to help with the future development of the HERU, particularly in the production phase where it can share 170 years of best practices and experience from Siemens factories with the team that are turning the HERU into a commercial entity.
The announcement comes after ten months of successful technical evaluations at Wychavon District Council and six months of trials at Hillers Farm Shop in Warwickshire. These trials, coupled with detailed independent assessment of the technology by Ricardo Energy & Environment, have found that the HERU could take the average 68 square metre home with the average occupancy of 2.4 people producing 1 tonne of resource, previously discarded as ‘waste’, from a positive contribution of 1.6 tonnes of CO2 per year to minus 80 kg CO2 per year for space heating and hot water with a HERU, gas boiler and the electric grid mix of Norway in 2012. A saving of 1680 kg CO2 per year, per home; 27 million UK homes equalling 45 million tonnes of CO2 per year saved.
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