Griff, I just spent some time looking at the Temp-Cast site and at
this site, which shows some more detail about the workings. Those Russian stoves look really nice. What are your experiences with it so far? Are you happy with it?
As far as electricity from biomass, there is nothing that I'm aware of in the home size. Community Power Corporation has been developing some village power-scale equipment (5- to 100-kW), that consists of a feed bin, an auger, a gasifier, an engine (the 25-kW system uses a GM V6 engine) and a generator. The gasifier takes a small wood chip (or they can be designed to use coconut husks or pecan shells, etc.) as fuel. In addition to electricity, you can also use the heat (from the radiator or the exhaust) for domestic or process loads. Unfortunately, they cost $100,000 or $200,000. That's for the small ones. Plus, they require a lot of attention. And they're loud.
Pig and dairy farms have been using anaerobic digesters for a long time, primarily as a means of controlling odors and reducing material bulk. The digester is used to treat animal waste (e.g. pig poop), and works best where the waste is easily collected, such as a farrow barn. Bacteria in the waste (the bugs) digest the waste and produce methane, which can be used to fire a modified diesel engine/genset (typically 80- to 200-kW). Some sewage treatment plants use a similar system, but I don't know if you could do the same thing with your home septic system.
glatt - transport of pellets is definitely a problem. We've considered commercial pellet systems for a few clients, but, as there is no bulk pellet delivery infrastructure in Colorado or New Mexico, we haven't looked at the available hardware. Rob Davis, of Show Low, Arizona, has modified a cement truck for bulk delivery. If something like that becomes more widely available I think it would greatly expand opportunities for pellet boilers and larger commercial systems.