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Burning corn (and many other grains, too: wheat, rice, sorghums,
millets, oats, rye, barley, rye, triticale, buckwheat, fonio, cherry
pits, olive pits and grains) to heat your home may sound weird,
but here's how it works and why it's good for you and the planet.
Corn is a renewable resource that can produce a new crop every year.
As the corn grows it absorbs carbon dioxide (a major climate-changing
gas). As the kernels are burned they release no more CO2 than they
absorbed. In fact, a lot of the CO2 remains in the corn stalk and
roots, which in turn end up stored in the soil.
The corn and the grains we recommend to use in CARBOROBOT boiler
in mixtures with
other fuels(coal, pellet or woodchips) The mixing values need to
determinate by the probes. There is possible try to burn other grains
clean(not in mixes) but the properity of materials may vary in wide
range and we can not predict the result.
The high heating value of bone-dry corn grain, ~19 MJ/kg, is about
1/3 of that of methane. The commercial corn grain with 15 or more
percent of moisture will have the heating value of about 15 MJ/kg.
When the price of corn is low and the price of energy high, agricultural
producers may wonder if it would be cheaper to burn shelled corn
rather than propane.
Buffington developed a chart to help people decide whether to burn
shelled corn or propane. To use the chart, you find the intersection
point of the value of shelled corn (vertical axis) and the price
of propane (horizontal axis). "The territory where the intersection
point falls tells you whether it's cheaper to burn shelled corn
or propane," Buffington says.
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