There is currently on the market a number of manufactures that make stoves which burn shelled corn, basically the stoves are similar to wood or pellet stoves, they have been design for dry granular fuel. Typically corn burning stoves have a combustion air fan and a fuel stoker, both of which are not common in standard wood stove construction.
Why burn corn?
The corn used as a fuel in stoves have two requirements of this corn fuel:
The storage, moving and handling of grain corn has evolved tremedously now every year farmers harvest, dry, convey, and store millions of bushels of corn. The equipment to do all these things is readily available. Consequently putting a corn storage system together for a home heating set up is possible with augers, conveyors and storage bins which are readily available.
Two reasons why corn is so attractive as a heat source are that dry shelled corn is so easily handled and in plentiful supply. Shelled corn also has a high heat energy per unit weight. Here's how shelled corn measures up to other solid fuels.
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Table 1. Heat Energy of On-Farm Fuel Sources |
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| Shelled Corn | 7000 BTU/lb (16,200 kJ/kg) at 15% Moisture Content |
| Straw | 6550 BTU/lb (15,200 kJ/kg) Air Dried |
| Corn Stover | 7540 BTU/lb (17,500 kJ/kg) Air Dried |
| Wood | 8000 BTU/lb (18,500 kJ/kg) Air Dried |
You can see from this table that shelled corn has heat energy close to that of wood.
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Pellet Stove
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