Viability, feasibility and Sustainability of emission reducing solutions for Nordic wood stoves: Testing and evaluation : Degree project for Master in mechanical engineering with focus on innovative and sustainable product development

Abstract: As of 2022 the European Union introduced a new Eco Design legislation which states emission limits for stoves sold in the EU. There are already requirements on emissions, but as both legislation are to be harder and there is a higher interest in Eco friendly products, there is an interest to study different ways to reduce the emissions from wood stoves. As stoves are today primarily seen as furniture that can provide some heat, easy usage is expected.  The objective of this report is to explore this connection between emission reduction and how viable, feasible and sustainable it might be if it where to be implemented in a real product. Using design thinking and the design thinking methodology, concepts where developed and tested using test stoves which where equipped to measure emissions of carbon monoxide and organic gaseous compounds. The testing was done in accordance with EN 16510 and the developed prototype was a catalytic filter mesh which was designed to be rotated so that air could flow around it instead of through it during startups and refueling. The theory behind it was that previous studies on similar catalytic mesh filters showed promising emission reductions. However, these test where done on static catalytic filters which where always in the path of the air in the flue system. That meant pressure drops due to restricted airflow in the stoves could result in impaired combustion and increased emissions.  The Testing showed promising result with the variable filter outperforming a stationary filter setup. The variable filter showed 16\% reduced carbon monoxide emissions and 25\% reduced organic gaseous compound emissions compared to the stationary filter setup. Furthermore the benefits of variable filters is believed to increase as the amount of filters stacked increase since it would in a stationary setup provide a lot of air restriction which could have serious effect on how easy the product would be to start and maintain. As for usability the setup is believed to be implementable in such ways that no additional work would be necessary from a user perspective and thus not discourage new users from choosing a stove which produces less emissions.