"Corn Heat" Google alert - pays off again.
Today, the Google alert came from the Cattle Network web site and the article explains how heating with Corn should be considered an alternative to heating with traditional means. Here is the URL: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=205869
MCGA: Thinking About Going Green – Look No Further Than Corn Heat
DEWITT, MICH. – There is a growing trend in the United States to become more environmentally friendly by going “green.” Michigan’s corn farmers suggest Americans use corn heat as a “green” solution for not only reducing our use of foreign fossil fuels, but also as a way to lower home and business heating costs.
Businesses, homeowners, and municipalities can use corn, America’s renewable resource, as their primary heating fuel and make themselves more “green” by using corn heating units. Corn heating units are designed specifically to generate heat from burning corn kernels. Corn heating units are different than wood-burning stoves because they are designed to burn the dry granular fuel. Some units are biomass stoves and can burn other fuels in addition to corn such as pellets, nutshells, small wood chips, and other small grains such as rye, wheat and barley.
Corn is an annually renewable fuel source. It is grown across the United States and has been roughly an 11 billion bushel crop for the last three years. By using corn for heating purposes, we can help to decrease our use of fossil fuels and other rapidly depleting energy sources. As oil and other energy sources are being depleted; corn is replenished annually and therefore makes an alternative fuel source that is renewable year after year. “I take great pride in the fact that I grow corn on my farm and am able to utilize its potential as an energy crop to heat not only my home, but also my shop and office,” added Pat Feldpausch, Michigan Corn Growers Association (MCGA) chairman and a corn grower from Fowler.
Corn heating systems can be used for many different heating purposes. Corn can take the place of other heating sources that have been used in the past, such as electricity, propane, heating oil, natural gas, or wood. Heating a 2,000 square foot home would require approximately 250 bushels of corn a year. “Corn heating units are very economical and are a cost-effective alternative to heating with propane or electricity, or even wood,” said Chris Schilling, an engineering professor at Saginaw Valley State University. “Even with corn around $5.00 a bushel, it is still cheaper to heat with corn than with electricity or propane.”
Not only are corn heating units cost effective, but they are also environmentally-friendly. Since corn heating units are designed to burn under oxidizing conditions, the resulting smoke is nearly odorless and consists largely of carbon dioxide and steam. In addition, they do not emit significant particulate emissions. Unlike the combustion of ordinary fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide produced during corn burning does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
For more information on heating with corn, a list of corn heating unit manufacturers and dealers, and a list of corn sellers specifically for corn heat, visit www.micorn.org/heat.
