Hi There!

1.  Just saw a news story about a family in Yuma, Colorado that burns
corn in their stove.  Apparently, 100,000 of these corn stoves are
sold in the U.S. each year.

2.  The farmer said his monthly heating bill is $60 versus $150 if he
uses propane.  The stove burns approximately one bushel of corn per
day at a cost of $2.20 per bushel.

3.  What am I missing?  There are huge surpluses of corn and other
grains produced each year (due to government price supports).  Why are
these not being used for heat?  Would a commerical corn-burning
facility be feasible?

4.  A 5-star answer would be 1-3 paragraphs (or 1-3 links where I can
do more reading) on alternatives to hydrocarbons.

5.  Please note I'm not very interested in "exotic" alternative fuels
like hydrogen.  But I'm very interested in "boring" alternative fuels
like corn, fast-growing wood, surplus motor oil, burning used tires,
burning trash instead of landfills, etc.

All comments greatly appreciated!

Thanks.
ron

It takes oil to produce corn (for fertilizer, harvesting, transport),
so much so that without govt. subsidies, it would probably be more
expensive to burn corn than it would be just to burn oil in the first
place.

PS: for an excellent article on this subject, check out an issue of
Harper's Magazine from about a year and a half ago; sorry I can't
remember the title or exact month of issue.

Thanks, tempworker.  I appreciate it !

ron

You might want to take a look at this article from today's Minneapolis
Star-Tribune:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5748445.html

In Takoma Park, MD, last year, an organization gave away up to 500
pounds of pelletized corn (or some similar name that they call the
burnable corn) to each owner of a corn stove-- FREE. That was a nice
way to lessen the heating bill!

Pretty neat, but they're like that in TakPak. It's a Nuclear Free Zone, too.

Thanks, dickl !

Excellent article.  I was especially impressed they now sell low-residue models.

The family in Colorado had a unique solution to residue:  they threw
it into the yard where their chickens would peck it to get the
remaining bits of corn.  That might now work here in San Francisco.

heh  heh  heh

Thanks again.
ron

markvmd,

Thanks for taking the time to write.  I appreciate it!

ron

Check out:

www.bixbyenergy.com

Reply to tempworker...

How much energy is required to produce one bushel of corn?

57,500 Btu's (LHV) is required to produce one bushel of corn; which is
equivalent to approximately 392,000 Btu?s (LHV).

This includes energy required for: Seed, Fertilizer Use, Energy
(Diesel, Gasoline, LP gas, Natural gas, & Electricity), Chemicals,
Custom Work, & Input Hauling.

That means 6.8 times more energy is produced than is consumed.  Where
does this additional energy come from...?  The sun.

*Source: USDA, Economic Research Service and Office of Energy Policy and New Uses.
Latest report: The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol: An Update /
AER-813.  Completely detailed.

Thanks, gally1998!

I appreciate your comments!


ron