Biochar and Pyrolysis Heating System
Since the 2024/25 heating season, the heating requirements of the Mühlestrasse 32 property in Biel have been met by a pyrolysis heating system. This innovative and forward-looking system does not burn wood, but rather carbonizes it in a controlled manner (pyrolysis). What the old charcoal burners used to do in painstaking round-the-clock manual labor now happens while we sleep. Instead of emitting CO2, smoke, and ash, this heating system produces ecologically valuable biochar (EBC veryfied). Since the beginning of 2024, biochar has been approved as an auxiliary material in agriculture in accordance with the fertilizer ordinance. With our heating plant PyroHeat P30, we remove approximately 15 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. The additional demand for biomass – 1/3 of the heating energy remains in the carbon – is covered by the sale of biochar, e.g., as a compost additive for humus formation.
The prototype has attracted a great deal of interest and is being presented to the public and discussed in the media:
- the idea on tv srf 10vor10 im März 2025 (in german)
- World first pyrolysis heating in derBund vom 28. April 2025 (in german)
Are you interested in biochar? We sell the organic biochar produced here in small quantities at CHF1/liter:
Are you interested in pyrolysis heating? You can find more information and details of the next guided tours at our home in Biel on the PYRONET manufacturer's website:
We are grateful to all the residents living at our property for putting up with the inconveniences of the first winter, which was to be expected with a prototype in its early stages. The pyrolysis process and heat production worked perfectly from the start. One challenge was adjusting the automated discharge of the plant charcoal. This led to occasional automatic shutdowns. From January 24 onward, the entire system ran reliably and we had a very comfortable heating.
Would you like to support the project? Our crowdfunding campaign will run until autumn '25:
In the following video, Fridolin Königsberger, one of the two developers at Pyronet GmbH, explains how the PyroHeat P30 pyrolysis heating system works (in german):