Corn Furnace
 

Hi guys, like all you DIY I like building things, not always cheaper but I
always learn a lot.

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in an
under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

Thanks guys

Eric

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 15:07:45 GMT, "Eric J. Comeau"
wrote:

Hi guys, like all you DIY I like building things, not always cheaper but I
always learn a lot.

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in an
under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

Thanks guys

Eric

Isn't the best way to burn corn is turning it into whiskey first?
ERS

I have been playing with this idea for awhile as well. Having a
virtually unlimited supply of corn, and the ever increasing cost of
fuel, I have been thinking about it a lot.

What I have done so far is look at all of the display models to get an
idea of layout and design.

JW

Eric J. Comeau wrote:

Hi guys, like all you DIY I like building things, not always cheaper but I
always learn a lot.

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in an
under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

Have you considered making a horno like the Indians in New Mexico have used for
hundreds of years? - GWE

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 09:26:16 -0800, Grant Erwin
wrote:

Eric J. Comeau wrote:

Hi guys, like all you DIY I like building things, not always cheaper but I
always learn a lot.

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in an
under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

Have you considered making a horno like the Indians in New Mexico have used for
hundreds of years? - GWE
The small ones are hornitos. O hornito para uno (Or hornito for one).
It means oven.
ERS

Eric J. Comeau wrote:

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has

Eric

For those of us who don't know (maybe only me?), tell us what a corn
burning furnace is and does.


--
Gary Brady
Austin, TX
www.powdercoatoven.4t.com

The cost for the fuel value of corn is less than the equivilent cost for
fuel oil or propane. In the rural farming communities of the Midwest,
corn is abundent and very cheap. You can also pick up some that may be
contaiminated so it cannot be used for animal feed even cheaper than
normal.

In a stove it burns cleanly, easy to make an automatic feeder.

Gary Brady wrote:
Eric J. Comeau wrote:

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has

Eric

For those of us who don't know (maybe only me?), tell us what a corn
burning furnace is and does.

Just curious, but does it just burn the left over chaff, or only the
husks? Do you feed in the kernals? If you feed in the kernals, does it
smell like popcorn when it's running?

Corn stoves and wood pellet stoves are virtually identical. Corn stoves
burn ONLY the kernels. No it smells like burnt corn. The big thing is
making sure the corn is DRY and stays that way.

--
Steve Williams

wrote in message
oups.com...
Just curious, but does it just burn the left over chaff, or only the
husks? Do you feed in the kernals? If you feed in the kernals, does it
smell like popcorn when it's running?





----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On 18 Feb 2005 15:34:51 -0800, the inscrutable
spake:

Just curious, but does it just burn the left over chaff, or only the
husks? Do you feed in the kernals? If you feed in the kernals, does it
smell like popcorn when it's running?

Now you have ME curious. ;) This looks like a good tutorial site:
http://burncorn.cas.psu.edu/

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT one?


--
"Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free
than Christianity has made them good." --H. L. Mencken
---
www.diversify.com Complete Website Development

Yrs. back I saw a guy heat his shop with a corn cob furnace. It worked
very good. He used broken cobs without kernels & made an autofeed auger
from his gravity box. Could almost get the furnace red hot.

Larry Jaques wrote:
On 18 Feb 2005 15:34:51 -0800, the inscrutable
spake:


Just curious, but does it just burn the left over chaff, or only the
husks? Do you feed in the kernals? If you feed in the kernals, does it
smell like popcorn when it's running?


Now you have ME curious. ;) This looks like a good tutorial site:
http://burncorn.cas.psu.edu/

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT one?

In article ,
Larry Jaques says...


I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT one?



Archer Daniels Midland g?

Ned Simmons

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the
details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in
an under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

A number of folks in my area have copied the design of corn stoves for sale.
I seen a really nice one at the MN state fair last summer. Three problems
have cropped up with the stoves I'm aware of:

1. Heat cracks and bends the agitator fingers. This could be solved by using
only 304 SS for this component.

2. Ash buildup is a serious problem. Daily cleaning is required with some
lots of corn. Combustion efficiency goes to heck when the air holes are
plugged. Oyster shells have helped, but not enough.

3. Most units only produce 50,000 BTU on a good day, too small a heat
source. You'll still need a backup.

I was talking this over with a friend last fall. Someone should look into
building a unit that works like a coal boiler: Grind the corn up, feed into
a firebox with a strong air flow from below. This is called a fluidized bed.
The ash goes out the stack. Making a working design small enough would be
the biggest challenge here, most commercial coal unit are for 1,000,000s of
BTUs

Karl

When I was working, I was involved in wood chip burning and I remember one
company was working on a small fluidized bed but I do not know if they ever
finished the project. The problems that you mentioned seem to be common to
the stoves. I am looking for a furnace, a corn burner or stoker in a
boiler. The underfed system seems like the best design to me. The corn
comes in from the bottom pushing everything up and the clinkers are pushed
out of the pot. I know in the wood chip burners, the underfed was one of
the best design and less trouble. There is no dealers around here so I am
limited to looking on the web. Some pots seem to have the air holes around
the top of the pot and other seem to have them part ways down the pot. It
is something that I will have to experiment with so the prototype will
probably be fairly light steel, as long as it would last a few weeks. Once
I would have a good design, I would probably get a pot casted in cast iron.
It is hard to see the details from small pictures on the web.

Thanks guys for the input and I would appreciate any other information.

Eric
"Karl Townsend" remove .NOT to reply wrote
in message nk.net...

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the
details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested in
an under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

A number of folks in my area have copied the design of corn stoves for
sale. I seen a really nice one at the MN state fair last summer. Three
problems have cropped up with the stoves I'm aware of:

1. Heat cracks and bends the agitator fingers. This could be solved by
using only 304 SS for this component.

2. Ash buildup is a serious problem. Daily cleaning is required with some
lots of corn. Combustion efficiency goes to heck when the air holes are
plugged. Oyster shells have helped, but not enough.

3. Most units only produce 50,000 BTU on a good day, too small a heat
source. You'll still need a backup.

I was talking this over with a friend last fall. Someone should look into
building a unit that works like a coal boiler: Grind the corn up, feed
into a firebox with a strong air flow from below. This is called a
fluidized bed. The ash goes out the stack. Making a working design small
enough would be the biggest challenge here, most commercial coal unit are
for 1,000,000s of BTUs

Karl

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 22:42:28 GMT, Gary Brady wrote:
Eric J. Comeau wrote:

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has

Eric

For those of us who don't know (maybe only me?), tell us what a corn
burning furnace is and does.

It's a furnace that burns corn. Auger drops kernels into the fire pot
at a timed rate. Very little ash, and depending on the prices, can be
cheaper per BTU than, say, propane or natural gas.

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:16:18 -0800, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di wrote:

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT one?

Someone who can do math, I'd expect. Cost of A is less than cost of B,
so do A. As soon as I have my summer project built, I hope to be able
to add a corn auger to my existing woodburner.

Dave Hinz

Dave Hinz wrote in
:

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:16:18 -0800, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di
wrote:

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT
one?

Someone who can do math, I'd expect. Cost of A is less than cost of
B, so do A. As soon as I have my summer project built, I hope to be
able to add a corn auger to my existing woodburner.

Dave Hinz


And I thought I'd read in this thread somewhere towards the beginning tha
the corn should be completely dry.
I'm wondering if it isn't more like I had heard when the corn furnace came
out here in northern wisconsin the a higher moisture corn would give a
higher temp (steam?)..hmm makes sense to me unless I'm missing something.

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 14:54:18 -0600, granpaw wrote:
Dave Hinz wrote in
:

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:16:18 -0800, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di
wrote:

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT
one?

Someone who can do math, I'd expect. Cost of A is less than cost of
B, so do A. As soon as I have my summer project built, I hope to be
able to add a corn auger to my existing woodburner.

And I thought I'd read in this thread somewhere towards the beginning tha
the corn should be completely dry.

Well, I suppose that would affect how it "flows" in the hopper, and how
hot and completely it will burn.

I'm wondering if it isn't more like I had heard when the corn furnace came
out here in northern wisconsin the a higher moisture corn would give a
higher temp (steam?)..hmm makes sense to me unless I'm missing something.

I think if you're heating up water to boil it off before you can burn
the kernel, you're wasting energy. Drier corn would seem to be the
best fuel. This is all spitballing, I haven't read about moisture levels
and how they change heat output per bushel, but I'd think it's like
firewood - the drier, the better.

Nice thing is, if you get a dual-fuel furnace, you can burn wood _or_
corn. I've got a forced air setup that I'd love to put into use;
it's rated for coal as well, but that's unlikely in my area than corn
is (south-central Wisconsin).

Eric J. Comeau wrote:
Hi guys, like all you DIY I like building things, not always cheaper
but I
always learn a lot.

Has anybody build their own corn burning furnace or has some of the
details,
like size of fire pot, air holes size and placement. I am interested
in an
under fed system. Any other details that I have not listed would be
appreciated.

Thanks guys

Eric

Eric I have burned corn in my home in commercial units for the last
6 years or so & have also modified a monarch wood stove to accept corn
for heating my shop. Im not sure what the under fed system is but I
just ran an old coal auger thru the side of the wood stove & built my
own firepot. If you need more details, email me at .
Jerry

Hi Dave if you build this unit I would like to know more about it. What I
am mostly looking for is the size of the pot for a 100,000 furnace, where to
place the air hole for combustion air. Searching the web, most are using a
60 cfm fan for combustion air. They are using a 2" auger. Somebody ask
about the underfed system. It has the auger in the bottom of the pot
pushing fresh fuel into the fire from the bottom, thus pushing out of the
pot ashes and clinkers. These system do not require the daily cleanup that
some of them need. I would appreciate any information.

Eric

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 07:16:18 -0800, Larry Jaques novalidaddress@di
wrote:

I thought they were burning the stripped cobs after taking the food
kernels off, but they're burning kernel corn. Who thought up THAT one?

Someone who can do math, I'd expect. Cost of A is less than cost of B,
so do A. As soon as I have my summer project built, I hope to be able
to add a corn auger to my existing woodburner.

Dave Hinz

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 14:54:18 -0600, granpaw
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

And I thought I'd read in this thread somewhere towards the beginning tha
the corn should be completely dry.
I'm wondering if it isn't more like I had heard when the corn furnace came
out here in northern wisconsin the a higher moisture corn would give a
higher temp (steam?)..hmm makes sense to me unless I'm missing something.

Two things wrong with that.

Wet stuff tends toi burn slower, so you get lower temperatures. It
probabky also smokes more. Smoke is heat going to waste.

Creating steam from water _takes_ heat. The hot steam then goes up the
chimney along with its borrowed heat. Wet corn would be as bad as wet
wood.