The source of this entry is from Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Driven by a desire to stop global warming, help Maryland grain farmers, and save money on high natural gas bills, a dozen Takoma Park families are using corn-burning stoves to heat their homes. Corn is an amazingly clean fuel, with almost none of the dirty particulates produced by oil or wood-burning stoves. Corn stoves create almost no smoke and only a very faint odor like that of roasted corn, which dissipates almost entirely after drifting 50 feet.

But what about corn's carbon dioxide emissions? Like all plants, corn removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, and then distributes the carbon equally throughout the plant, which consists of one third grain, one third stalk and one third roots. When corn grain is burned, therefore, approximately one third of this carbon is returned to the atmosphere. The un-harvested stalk and roots are returned to the soil and eventually the carbon in these parts of the plant is released (mineralized) to the atmosphere through microbial activity. The rate and amount of carbon mineralized, however, depends on many factors, including type and amount of tillage, soil type, amount of soil organic matter, climate and moisture. Taking these factors into account, and the fact that the farmer who supplies the Takoma Park Corn Burners Co-op uses minimum tillage, we estimated that as high as 10% of the total carbon fixed by the corn plants is sequestered or stored in the soil.

To further determine the carbon dioxide emissions related to the corn burning stoves we calculated the amount of carbon dioxide released from the fossil fuel inputs used in the production, harvest and delivery of the corn, including:

Results of these calculations showed that the corn used for the stoves produced a negative emission of 484 lbs. of carbon dioxide per ton of corn; in other words, almost 500 lbs. of carbon dioxide per ton of corn is stored in the soil and removed from the atmosphere (see CO2 budget table). This negative emission is a direct result of the sustainable practices of the farmer who uses reduced tillage, fertilizes almost entirely with manure, and applies minimal amounts of herbicides and no pesticides.