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Corn Boiler

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hr Member Posts: 6,106
http://burncorn.cas.psu.edu/

hot rod

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Comments

  • Elmer Fudd
    Elmer Fudd Member Posts: 8
    Corn boiler

    I have a customer that is interested in a corn boiler. not a residential size but a large corn boiler to replace a johnston hot water boiler serving about 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. FYI this is about a 35 year old school in a good farming community. Not corn pellets but a corn boiler.

    Have any of you installed, seen, worked on a corn boiler? What did you think? if you installed one what would you do different? What kind of problems can I expect (rocks in auger, bugs, popcorn, ashes, smell, emissions, etc)?

    How much corn (pounds?) would you expect to use in a midwestern state with about 7000 HDD? yes I know it depends on the boiler and the weather and building but a good swag would help.

    to all you farmers (or former farmers) how much corn can you get in an acre? they have about 80 acres they could dedicate to this and could use more if needed.

    any links, resources, manufacturers that anyone can recommend? I have done a Google search (another fine example of an american company bending over for the almighty buck and letting the Chinese censor the net- but that is a whole nother topic) and found some good information but I thought I would ask all you folks who actually have some real world experience.

    I am on a fact finding mission and any information would be helpful. this has probably been on this site before but I was not paying attention at the time to such things and a search turned up nothing.

    I know they can burn anything (sugar cane, wood chips, cow dung, peanut shells) and corn burners have probalby been around for a while but I have never seen one in general use. It makes sense for a farming, rural community like this one to use the local resource but not at any cost. Their competent but overworked staff do not need a specialized, finicky piece of equipment to maintain and babysit - something new never hurts but it has to work and be able to be mainatined. Call backs can be a killer. Cutting edge can often be bleeding edge.

    By the way I am not related to Elmer Fud - my name has (2) d's (to prevent copyright infringement.)

    PS: I had to do this thread twice - I forgot to input my e mail address and when it told me I was missing some information and I did the back arrow my whole original message was gone. Bummer(does that word date me)
  • kevin coppinger_4
    kevin coppinger_4 Member Posts: 2,124
    try ...

    HS Tarm...they have wood and corn pellet boiler gallore. kpc

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  • Kevin O. Pulver
    Kevin O. Pulver Member Posts: 380
    Are you THE Elmer Fudd?

    There was a guy here in the paper who collects everything Elmer. He even has vanity license plates. I'm more of a Yosemite Sam guy I guess.
    Back to your questions. I'm smack in the middle of Nebraska corn country. With the new hybrids, high-plant population density, and pivot irrigation, 200 bushel per acre corn is not at all unheard of. Corn is expensive to produce with 2 or 3 dollar diesel to shred stalks, plant,spray, cultivate,harvest, natural gas irrigation engine, etc... Let's say you can sell it (or buy it) at $2.00 per bushel, but the govt. is also giving the farmers a little bonus somewhere over and above that. It's not gonna be cheap to raise all that corn, but I do believe it's probably cheaper than natural gas. Let's say you count on 180 bushel irrigated corn that's about 14,000 bushels. In a 5 month heating season you could use 2,800 bushels per month or 700 per week or 100 per day. I've heard homes use maybe one per day, but that is probably only supplemental heat. Don't forget,like wood,it must be very dry to get the maximum heat value and avoid trouble. Drying wood is easy, drying corn is expensive (in the bin with nat. gas) unless you have nerve enough to let it stand in the field and dry naturally with winter coming on. I don't want to sound like I'm a surrogate whiner for the agri-pros, but the corn is definitely expensive to raise and the smaller margin demands larger operations. The smaller guys are dying off. 80 acres definitely won't support the equipment it would take to farm it. Guys with only 80 acres make more money by renting the ground out to someone with large equipment who can cover it quickly. (they could still burn the corn)
    4 row equipment was new here in the 1940s I believe, and now 8 row is the average. A couple local guys have 16 row planters! They're like 60 feet wide and fold up to go down the road. I would love to install some corn boilers but don't have any hard numbers of what your costs would be. I'd start with finding out just how many BTUs there are per bushel of whatever moisture corn the boiler requires (say 12%) Then figure it at approximately $2 or (slightly less at production cost)per so many BTUs. Compare that to how many dollars per therm of Natural gas or propane. That should get you started. My understanding is that the corn has to be real clean, (screened) or it won't work well. It also can't be damaged, moldy, etc... I've heard of guys burning old seed corn that the companies must destroy. It's cheap, but covered with some kind of nasty chemical that you might not want to be breathing in smoke form. I don't know if any of this is helpful, but I am interested myself in what you find out. Kevin
  • S Ebels
    S Ebels Member Posts: 2,322
    A few thoughts/facts

    The moisture content is critical to efficiency and maintenance. It has to be a maximum of 15% or less. Preferably <12%.

    Garn (Dectra Industries) makes an industrial strength boiler that would provide the BTU's needed for that many sq ft. Very efficient.

    Dried corn will yield about 550,000 BTU's per bushel. Multiply that by the efficiency of the boiler to get actual output per bushel. Most of the units on the market (the ones that look like ice shanties) will do well to hit 40% efficiency. The above mentioned Garn will hit an honest 75-80%. BTW, it is intende for use with corn ON the cob, not shelled.

    FACT! There will be maintenance involved with any and all of these units. Why do you think we got away from bio based fuels 100 years ago? Again, moisture content is critical. One load of corn that's not dried properly and you have a mess! Your unit will probably be out of commision until it's cleaned up and the feed auger is unplugged.


    Enjoy!
  • Bill Stocky
    Bill Stocky Member Posts: 17
    Heat value of corn

    I am also very interested in this method of heating, but my only experience so far is the internet. I have heard that you can get the corn for as little as $1.50/bu straight from the farmer - which may be better than dooing your own crop planting/harvesting, or rent the land as was suggested.

    I think the 550,000 BTU/bushel is high. If you check out this web site, which seems pretty reputable and in line with quite a few others that I have looked at, you will see that it's closer to 380 - 400,000. Also, as you will see the moisture content is probably as important as what you pay for it:
    http://energy.cas.psu.edu/energycontent.html

    It would be good to see some certified efficiency data on some of these units instead of claims - the technology is still in its infancy.

    Keep the thread going, I'm interested in what you find out.
  • S Ebels
    S Ebels Member Posts: 2,322
    The 550K/ Bu.

    Is a number I saw on a white paper from a lab, can't remember what one. The manager of the local farmers Co-op showed it to me one day whilst discussing this very topic. It's the gross output from a bushel of 10% moisture content corn.

    The Garn bio boiler is the only one that I know of that has actually been lab tested for efficiency. Warnock-Hersey ran a bunch of tests on it for the manufacturer and the results were from 83-90% depending on boiler water temp.
  • John_110
    John_110 Member Posts: 1
    What about wood burners?

    I've heard they are even better. I was considering one. Any experience with wood burners out there? Thanks
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