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Veteran Corn Burner Designs Easy-To-Maintain Furnace
Even with $4/bushel corn, you can save half on heating costs with Randy Severson's 600 Rocket corn furnace. Propane at $1.39/gal. is equivalent to $7.36/bushel of corn, says the Pocahontas, Iowa, inventor.
Owner of SAR Biomass Energy Systems L.L.C., Severson has been building and selling corn stoves for eigh
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Veteran Corn Burner Designs Easy-To-Maintain Furnace ENERGY Corn Burning Soves 31-5-32 Even with $4/bushel corn, you can save half on heating costs with Randy Severson's 600 Rocket corn furnace. Propane at $1.39/gal. is equivalent to $7.36/bushel of corn, says the Pocahontas, Iowa, inventor.
Owner of SAR Biomass Energy Systems L.L.C., Severson has been building and selling corn stoves for eight years, including hot water boilers and grain drying systems. Last winter he installed his new 600 Rocket furnace in a 40 by 500-ft. poultry barn. The furnace and a 12-bu. bin were placed in a 12 by 14-ft. shed attached to the barn. A 500-bu. bin outside fills the inside bin which automatically augers corn into the top of the furnace. Combustion air is also introduced from the top, which allows the furnace to burn corn at a high temperature.
"We can run bin-run corn with fines and small pieces of cob without plugging or putting the fire out," says Severson. "Corn moisture should be between 13 and 15 1/2 percent.
" Another thing that sets Severson's stove apart from others is its easy opening heat exchanger. "We designed this especially for poultry and livestock barns to keep bacteria out," Severson says. Simply remove three plugs and it can be pressure washed clean.
"The best thing about this furnace compared to propane is that there's 20 percent less moisture in the barn, because we go through the heat exchanger," Severson says. "Propane puts out moisture, one gallon of water for every 11 gallons burned." In addition, open gas heaters emit carbon monoxide, which makes chickens or other livestock sleepy so they don't eat as much.
The 600 Rocket can be geared down to 100,000 btu's in warmer weather and in cold weather geared up to 600,000 btu's, consuming 85 lbs. of corn per hour. It took 268 bu. of corn to raise a 40-day flock of chickens last year in the dead of winter, Severson says.
The patent-pending 600 Rocket costs $9,200 and is available on the SAR website or through distributors.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, SAR Biomass Energy Systems LLC, Randy Severson, P.O. Box 203, Pocahontas, Iowa 50574 (ph 712 335-4616; sarbio @ncn.net; sarcornfurnace.com).
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