| Corn stoves are specifically designed to burn a
granular fuel. Because this fuel is metered into the burning
chamber, most stoves have a storage hopper to contain a supply of
fuel. In some ways corn burning stoves are very similar to pellet
burning stoves. In both cases, corn and pellets are very dense.
Consequently, neither of these fuels will burn readily in an open
pile in a fire chamber. To get these fuels to burn, some
manufacturers use a small combustion chamber into which the corn
is fed and combustion air is pumped through. The corn can be
either dribbled into this combustion chamber from above, or it can
be stoked into the chamber from below by means of an auger. The
feed rate of this auger can be adjusted to regulate the amount of
corn burned, which in turn controls the amount of heat produced.
The second requirement for burning to occur is oxygen. In order to
support combustion, oxygen is blown into the combustion chamber by
means of a small fan. The combustion air is usually brought in
from outside, not room air. This combustion chamber is actually
quite small and could easily fit into a child's lunch box.
As corn burns it produces a clinker. Because of the small size
of the combustion chamber the clinker should be removed daily.
With practice, the removal of the clinker can be done without
having to shut down and then relight the stove. A specially
designed poker is used to upend the clinker, then tongs are used
to remove it. |
