Corn
The Europa can burn corn as well as wood pellets. An innovative stainless steel auger which removes the corn 'clinker' while the stove is running overcomes a common problem with corn stoves (clinkers), resulting in a reliable heating appliance which runs for long periods of time without user intervention. It also means you can fuel your stove with a very inexpensive, environmentally friendly fuel!
About corn as a fuel source:
North America produces about 300 million tons of corn, enough to heat over 115 million homes
Shelled Corn has about the same BTU as wood pellet fuels (8,000 Btu/lb), but has more ash, so the maintenance on the pellet stove in terms of ash removal is greater. One acre will yield 3.8 tons of shelled corn, enough to heat 1.5 homes and is equal to 11.5 barrels of oil. Heating with a closed loop energy crop such as corn can reduce green house gases (CO2) by as much as 5.1 tons of CO2 per home per year.
Corn As An Alternative Fuel Source US Statistics
2000 at a Glance
Acres Planted...................................................79,545
Million
Acres Harvested............................................... 72,732
Million
Total Production .....................................9.968 Billion Bushels
Average Yield Per Acre .............................137.1 Bushels/Acre or
3.8 tons
Statistics regarding the Ethanol Industry, which uses corn to make this alternative liquid fuel
A typical bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds and contains about 72,800 kernels.
Most of the weight is starch, oil, protein and fiber, with some natural moisture.
From one bushel of corn, Williams Bio-Energy produces:
Wet Mill
· 4 pounds Corn Germ/bu
· 11 pounds Corn Gluten Feed/bu
· 2.5 pounds Corn Gluten Meal/bu
· 2.5 pounds CCDS/bu
· 16.5 pounds carbon dioxide
· 16.5 pounds (2.5 gallons) Ethanol/bu
Dry Mill
· 18 pounds Distillers Dried Grain/bu
· 18.4 pounds (2.8 gallons) Ethanol/bu
An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows. A pound of corn
consists of
about 1,300 kernels. 100 bushels of corn produces about 7,280,000 kernels.
Corn is produced on every continent of the world, except Antarctica.
Ethanol-blended fuels represent 12 percent of fuel sales in the U.S.
One acre of corn produces enough ethanol to equal 10 barrels of imported
oil.
23.8 gallons of ethanol displace one barrel of
imported oil.
American motorists have driven more than two trillion trouble-free miles on
ethanol-blended fuels since 1980.
Using ethanol reduces the demand for imported MTBE by 98,000 barrels per
day.