Corn-burning stoves in hot demand

[jpak]

http://www.journal-news.com/hp/content/news/stories/2006/03/14/HJN031406CornHeatEdit2.html

With spring on the horizon, it may seem like a bad time to bring up ways to save on heating costs. But there’s always next year.

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And the way alternative fuel stoves sold this year, you might want to put an order in now.

<snip>

Price said people are spending hundreds of dollars per month to heat their homes for the winter. He said one customer with a 2,000-square-foot home can heat a home with three tons of corn, or less than $600, for the entire winter.

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Price said the burned corn, which is called a clunker, can be used as a fertilizer in home gardens.

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[951-Riverside]

1. I read "Cross-Burning in hot demand" lol

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Could be a solution for people on fixed incomes who have to choose

between heat or food!

[Benhurst]

5. Yeah, they can buy corn and decide later whether they want to

starve or freeze to death.

That's what I like most about BushAmerica. Consumers are given choices.

[Deja Q]

3. Use chicken shit instead. I want to eat my corn!

:P

[theophilus]

4. I guess it is a way, for some, but to me

it is a shame to be burning "food" when so many in the world are malnourished. America: There's got to be a better way!

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Corn is not a very good human food crop really because it takes

so much nitrogen to produce and the food value is much less than many other grains. There are many documented cases of malnutrition resulting from corn heavy diets.

Most of the corn grown in this country ends up as animal feed or ethanol.

There are lots of varieties of corn, some are better for ethonol production, some are better for tortillas and chips, some are better for corn on the cob, some for popping, etc.

Interesting fact of this article (and something I didn't know before) is that pound per pound corn has more BTU than any other plant.

So I don't see this as "burning food" but rather an interesting way to heat homes for less. That means people have more money left for food.

This also decentralizes energy production, provides an alternative to fossil fuels, and provides local markets to farmers. Seems like a win/win/win situation to me.

[jpak]

10. Corn can also be produced by organic methods to reduce fossil fuel inputs

(or by no-till methods)

http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/value/factsheets/corn/fact-organic-corn.htm

But this requires a lengthy crop rotation period (~5 years).

But then again organic soybeans could produce fuel oil (as well as soy protein) and straw from the cereal crop rotation could be used in biomass cogeneration electric plants.

(and solar thermal or biogas methane could be used in the drying process too...)

:)

[John Q. Citizen]

12. True, organic methods are time tested! Still, whether you derive

the nitrogen from organic sources or from petrochemicals, corn is a very heavy nitrogen feeder.

There is a theory that the huge migrations into and out of Mezo-America Yucatan (in South Eastern Mexico) is related to the fact that it takes about 500 years for the limestone to break down into fertile enough soil to sustain corn.

People came in, large civilizations flourished (Mayan) and then people would move out when the soil base was depleted. Then about 500 years later people would move back in, is the theory.

[jpak]

13. We can make anhydrous ammonia from hydrogen

produced by the electrolysis of water using electricity generated by wind turbines.

(and recycle the corn residue as well)

:)

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Is that before or after you convert it to ethanol?

That'll get the burner going... :D

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Before apparently.

[Dead_Parrot]

9. Pah! That's boring... :-) nt

[dcfirefighter]

11. You can leverage corn subsidies into heat subsidies!

But, asfaik, you can't heat water with it.

[NickB79]

14. So we're gonna burn corn for heating and for our vehicles as ethanol

And produce enough for animal feed and human consumption, while trying to figure out how to grow more corn with less fertilizer as the natural gas feedstock used to produce it becomes more scarce?

[Dead_Parrot]

15. Yup. nt