Can Hawken furnaces burn corn?
Although there has been much excitement about burning corn, shelled corn is a very difficult fuel to use. So far, no manufacturers have found an effective way to burn shelled corn in an outdoor furnace, except in industrial applications. Many manufacturers have introduced corn burners to customers who have been disappointed to learn of the difficulty these units have in maintaining normal operation. The biggest difficulty of corn burners is starting the fire. Once corn stops burning, it is very difficult to restart (unlike wood that will smolder for days until fed oxygen again). Since outdoor furnaces must cycle on and off based on heat requirements, corn burning outdoor furnaces must be able to restart the fire after cycling off. Currently, no outdoor corn burner exists that addresses these issues. Hawken has tested various corn burners and has found several problems exist with them. First, given that corn is difficult to ignite once cycled off, we found that several corn burners will
