Corn fuel weighed as energy alternative

FARMINGTON – A local dairy farmer is growing Btu’s by the bushel.

Herbert “Bussie” York of Sandy River Farms thinks corn has potential as an alternative to fuel oil or wood.

His daughter and son-in-law are heating their new house with a stove fueled by his dried shell corn, the same type that is used for cattle feed. York also has an order for 5,000 bushels from a Fort Kent couple who plan to open a corn-packaging plant and corn stove shop business.

Using corn as a fuel could help ease the region’s energy needs while giving farmers new markets for their products, York said.

A bushel of corn, which now sells for $2.41, can replace 3.6 gallons of oil, he said. With heating oil selling for well over $2 a gallon, oil costs more than three times as much as corn by his calculations.

“We can grow for our own energy needs right here,” York said. “Corn is a clean fuel, it is up to 85 percent efficient and burns with no smoke, no odor, no creosote, no fire danger and produces very little ash. And you can grow a crop in 180 days.”

Dried shell corn has been used in the South and Midwest to fuel corn stoves and furnaces for years, but the idea has been slow to take hold in Maine until recently.

In Fort Kent, Dan and Lynn Beaulieu, owners of Corn King USA, are converting a potato barn into a corn stove shop business. When they open in May, they plan to sell stoves and corn by the bag or in bulk and will deliver to dealers throughout the Northeast.

“Interest has been phenomenal,” Dan Beaulieu said.

Fuel corn could become a good profitable crop for farmers, said John Harker of the Maine Department of Agriculture.

“There are a number of dairy farms in central Maine that have gone out of business and those fields are still very productive for corn,” he said. “If farmers can cut into this market, it could bring back productivity to land that is lying fallow or being developed into house lots.”

Residential corn stoves are attractive units with glass doors that use a hopper with a 40- to 80-pound capacity. For every 100 pounds of corn burned, less than a pound of ash is created that only needs to be cleaned out once or twice a month.

Depending on the model, stoves and furnaces can burn from 20 hours to two weeks on one feeding.

Harker is pleased to see farmers trying out new ideas.

“I think they are on to something right now,” he said. “People are looking for a local source for fuel and what better way to do that than to use corn?”