A modern free-standing pellet coal stove

I've cut 5 cords of wood a year on average to heat our home for the past 30 years. Yikes, is it that long! Recently, actually just before Y2K (at the worse possible time) I began research on wood pellet stoves. Neat little things. Don't need anything but a small pipe out the window. Can heat a home with one or 2 of em. They even run on corn. The usual resistance to the wood stove is the mess and the volume of wood. The pellet stove greatly reduces those concerns, but not completely. Why not make a modernized version that can really substitute as a primary heat source in homes. It would run on "marbles of coal" taking up signficantly less volume, and could run for a week at a time without filling. My wood stove has coal potential....but I have only used it during the most cold months...and it's a pain to get started. The modernized coal pellet stove would have a propane or gas starting system, to alleviate that concern. We have bazillion tons of available coal, and a source of clean safe heat, with woodstove charm, has to be sellable. I know of the systems that tie into standard heating systems, but that's a big installation....and I think this is fundamentally better. The bottom line is....use less oil for home heating.