The systems consists of a heating storage container and a stand with an integrated fan. Gantert registered his “field heater” – as he calls it – for patenting last summer and is now presenting it to the public. He says that the grievous earthquake in Nepal at the beginning of last year provided the stimulus for the invention: Watching TV footage of the Nepalese people coping with the situation in cold weather conditions, he thought about how a simple, cost-effective heating system could be devised that would work in places lacking the usual infrastructure. In his lab at Hochschule Offenburg, he then created a simple, storage-based system which generates heat using zeolite pellets. The tiny, sponge-like pellets produce heat when combined with water, an ideal basis for compact, portable heating: “Our field heater does not need to burn something in order to produce heat, but releases energy stored within.”
One cartridge generates enough energy to warm up a 20-person tent for one night. When the cartridge is used up, it is collected, returned and refilled. The heat is supplied in developed regions and can then be released in areas of crisis, war or emergency. Once filled with the zeolite pellets, the cartridges can be stored for long periods of time, because there are no storage losses with this storage type. The absence of combustion processes carries a further advantage, as Hesso Gantert explains: “You don’t need to supply extra air to the tents, or discharge exhaust fumes. Thus, the tents can remain closed and heat losses minimized.”