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Burning other fuels in a RMH?

 
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I was recently thinking about what other fuels might be safely burned in a RMH.  We have a bunch of shelled corn that is probably not fit for eating at this point, but should burn, what I'm wondering about is whether it would leave a bunch of clinkers in a RMH burn tunnel in a j-tube configuration.

 
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As long as the moisture content is reasonably low, they will burn. The problem you may face is feed rate and airflow through the fuel, since the J-tube is designed for sticks or kindling with gaps around and between the pieces. Corn, like pellets, small wood chips, or sawdust, will pile up on the bottom of the feed tube and create a non-burning zone where the air fails to penetrate. The next thing that happens is you lose combustion heat and could run into smokeback and draft issues.

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There are designs that do incremental feeding of particle fuels, so it's definitely possible. You just don't want to dump a bunch in at once. Check the recently active thread on the Liberator heater and their pellet feeder for ideas.
 
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