Well, wood pellets can be used.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=5f796e249dd1b79ff4eafc7bf65f6f97
(hope that that link works).
The link is to an abstract:
Design and operation of an air-conditioning system fueled by wood pellets
Takami Kaia, , , Yoshimitsu Uemuraa, Yukio Teraokab, Takeshige Takahashia, Yasuo Hatatea and Masahiro Yoshidaa
aDepartment of Applied Chemical and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-21-40 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
bDepartment of Environmental Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima, Kagoshima University, 1-21-40 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
Received 5 June 2006; accepted 13 March 2007. Available online 9 May 2007.
Abstract
A room-cooling system of 2 kW capacity fueled by wood pellets was designed, built and tested. The system was demonstrated during summer at the Yakushima Field Station of Kagoshima University, Japan. It contained a pellet feeder, a pellet burner, a heat exchanger, a lithium bromide–water absorption heat pump and a control unit. The volume of the test room was 36.9 m3 and ambient temperature 30 °C. The airflow temperature from the room unit was decreased to 16 °C by the system, and the room temperature could be successfully controlled to 24 °C steady state. Room heating in winter was also demonstrated. Since the air was heat exchanged, the overall energy efficiency of the cooling system was low at about 19%. However, the calculation based on the heat flow showed that the efficiency could be enhanced to about 75% by direct heating of the regenerator by the flue gas.
Keywords: Wood pellets; Space cooling; Wood chips; Absorption heat pump