COMBUSTION OF CORN GRAIN IN A DIRECT FIRED BURNER FOR DRYING APPLICATION R. Berruto 1) , S. Bechis 1) , P. Busato 1) 1) Department of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Engineering and Economy, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), Italy, remigio.berruto@unito.it Foreword After the raise in fossil fuel costs and the market price reduction of agricultural products, the interest in biomass for energy production is increased. As drying requires about 40-50% of the total fuel consumption for grain production process, it appears quite interesting to use energy from renewable resources like biomass for this drying. Rice and corn crops cover in Italy an area of about 1,42 Mha, which means around 12,35 Mt of grain to be dried. The fuel (oil and GPL) used for drying corn and rice is about 189.000 t per year, with emission of 0,5 Mt of CO 2 . year -1 . Using corn grain energy for this task could substantially help in reducing emissions from fossil fuels. The corn grain as a biomass for energy production has the following advantages: − The grain has standard composition (like many other seeds); − It is easy to store; − Has a high heating power; − It is easy to find in the market; − Does not need specific investments in equipments for production; − The logistics and production techniques are well known and established; − It allows the valorisation of low quality product and mycotoxins grain. Materials and Methods Corn burner Energymais is multi-product (corn or oil) direct fired burner for drying agricultural products. The burner uses dried corn grains, previously grinded. The combustor is a fluidized bed type. Starting the process, oil is necessary in order to heat the combustion chamber, before the grinded corn is sent to the burner via a pneumatic conveyor. After grinded corn begins to burn, the addition of oil is not necessary. The gases after combustion are mixed with ambient air in order to match the requested temperature in the dryer. The burner works like traditional burners with oil, in an automatic way, without request of manual intervention during the drying process. The burner can work with corn or with oil, and during the drying process the user can switch from corn to oil and vice versa. No ashes or combustion residual are produced, and the burner does not require special cleaning or maintenance compared with the traditional oil burners.