# Corn Stove Carbon Monoxide

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-stove-carbon-monoxide/478937>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 28, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-stove-carbon-monoxide/478937 "2008-12-28T06:54:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Madgolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Madgolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madgolf)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-stove-carbon-monoxide/478937/1 "2008-12-28T06:54:01Z")

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When burnt in a fireplace, why do many other common natural grown things emit carbon monoxide but corn does not?

What is the kicker component for releasing monoxide versus dioxide that corn kernels lack? I know corn releases carbon dioxide when burnt.

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**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-stove-carbon-monoxide/478937/2 "2008-12-28T12:22:58Z")

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> [@Madgolf](#):
>
> When burnt in a fireplace, why do many other common natural grown things emit carbon monoxide but corn does not?
> 
> What is the kicker component for releasing monoxide versus dioxide that corn kernels lack? I know corn releases carbon dioxide when burnt.

It not so much that corn cannot produce carbon monoxide (it can), but that when burned in a [corn stove](http://www.breckwell.com/multifuel.htm) equipped with a combustion blower which burns the corn efficiently and completely, no carbon monoxide is produced. If you just heaped corn up in a fireplace and managed to ignite it, it would produce carbon monoxide.