Corn Cob Furnace Heats

Corn cob furnace heats ENERGY Alternative Fuels 15-5-3 About seven years ago Russell Bucholtz got fed up with buying 2,000 gallons of fuel oil every year to heat his large two-story farm-house built in 1895. So he scouted up some used parts and engineered a corn cob-burning furnace that heats both his home and shop, plus provides domestic hot water as well. The best part is that he gets the cobs for free from an elevator in nearby Pitsburg, Ohio, which shells ear corn. "The elevator is glad to get rid of the cobs," he says, "and I'm glad to haul them away." Bucholtz installed a hot water boiler in his shop and piped it to baseboards 30 feet away in his house. His biggest challenge was devising a way to transfer the cobs from a forage wagon to the boiler. To do this, he recycled a used coal stoker which has a hopper on one end and a gearbox which drives a shopmade auger that feeds the cobs into the boiler. A thermostat on the boiler controls the operation of the stoker system. Cobs from the forage wagon are delivered to the hop-per on the stoker by an shop-rigged electric gearbox on the wagon. The cobs fall from the side of the wagon into the hopper which is equipped with a micro switch on a pressure plate. The switch, recycled from a junked clothes dryer, starts and stops the delivery of cobs from the forage wagon. After experimenting with combine augers to move the cobs, Bucholtz fashioned together a 6" auger with specially-designed flighting. "The homemade auger," he says, "didn't cost any more than a tank of fuel oil." The stoker system is supported by wheels off of an old cultivator and jacks from a junked corn picker. Bucholtz, a long-time area farmer who was also an Air Force mechanic, stores the corn cobs in the haymow of his barn, and rakes them from there into the forage wagon. One load will keep the furnace going for about one month. Because corn cobs produce only about 2% ash, Bucholtz says a wagon load of cobs will leave only about a wheelbarrow full of ash. A pound of cobs contains roughly 6,000 BTUs, he says, and dried cobs from a bushel of corn will produce about the equivalent of a gallon of LP gas. A load of 3,500 lbs. of cobs will produce the same energy as a cord of seasoned hardwood. Using corn cobs as alternative energy has allowed Bucholtz to retire the oil and wood stoves they he previously used to heat the house. "There's not as much dirt in the house now," he says, "and we had fun proving to people that the cob system would work." For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Russell Bucholtz, 7427 Painter-Creek Road, Arcanum, Ohio 45304 (ph 513 548-7216).

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