Benefits of a Corn Burner
Specialized corn burner stoves or converted wood pellet stoves use dried livestock feed grade corn as heating fuel. Corn burning stoves benefit the individual home owner, who can expect reduced heating expense to offset the costs of converting from a conventional heating system. Corn "burns clean," meaning that it does not contribute to air pollution or emit atmospheric greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) after the smoke passes through the "double-burn" stove system. Corn burners have a lower environmental impact when compared to the high environmental costs of both coal-generated electricity emissions and heating with fuel oil.
-
CO2 Budget
-
Green plants take up carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, retain the carbon in a sugar molecule and return oxygen to the atmosphere. Marine life accretes calcium carbonate shells. A carbon "budget" reflects the dynamics of carbon storage or release to the atmosphere. On the long term, carbon can be sequestered for millions of years in calcareous sedimentary rock. On the short term, carbon can be sequestered in, for example, a corn kernel. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network of Takoma, Maryland, calculated a budget for corn kernels as household fuel. They suggested corn burning stoves yielded a net sequestration of 5 percent of carbon, even when herbicides, fertilizers and other CO2 releases were included.
Rebuttal of C02 Budget
-
On 27 January, 2003, the Washington Post reported that Chesapeake Climate Action Network's calculation was supportable if the corn were grown using sustainable ("green") techniques. The Post pointed out that the environmental care of the particular farmer providing corn to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network was not typical of average corporate growers. The Post quoted Cornell University agriculture professor David Pimentel's conclusions that conventional corn production in the U.S. is "an energy-consuming environmental disaster," using more fertilizers and insecticides and herbicides than any other crop.
Heating Degree Day (HDD) Defined
-
Climate control engineers use 65 degrees Fahrenheit as a base outdoor ambient temperature on which to base their designs for interior heating and cooling systems. The difference between daily average temperature and the 65 degree base is the heating degree day (HDD). For example, if the day's high is 75 degrees and the day's low is 55 degrees, then the average is 65 and the HDD is zero. If the day's high is 70 and the low is 40, then the HDD is 10 degrees, which is the average of the high and low (55 degrees) subtracted from the base temperature (65 degrees).
9,000 HDD for $516 in 2002
-
In March, 2002, the University of North Dakota Agriculture Extension Service published a "Fuel Cost Comparison Chart." Based on 9,000 HDD in North Dakota annually, heating a well-insulated 1,500 square foot home requires 80 million BTUs of energy each year. Meeting that need required 258 bushels of shelled corn at $2.00 per bushel generating 8,500 BTUs per pound. The annual expense was $516. Of the charted fuel, only wheat straw was less expensive than shelled corn. For residential electrical service, the expense was $703, for propane $850, for natural gas $609, for fuel oil $816, for wheat grain $708, and for coal $559.
Mother Earth Recommendation
-
In October/November 1995, Mother Earth News recommended high efficiency pellet stoves as a more beneficial use for livestock feed grade corn. Mother Earth cited a 20 percent efficiency in converting petroleum-sourced anhydrous ammonia (nitrogen fertilizer) to a corn product that is then fed to cattle at a 10 percent efficiency of 10 pounds of corn protein to raise 1 pound of beef protein. In that system, 99.998 percent of the petroleum energy is lost. Mother Earth recommended that direct consumption of the feed corn as fuel is a better use and suggested that a corn burner stove can cook meals, dry mittens and boil the teapot while also heating the house.
-
