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Corn-burning stove is hot Page 1 of 3 <br />5#~t'TrlbUite.Gl'}tt'1 'MINNEAPOLIS • ST. PACIL, MINNESOTA <br />Last update: May 02, 2006 - 10:23 PM <br />Corn-burning stove is hot INFORMATION <br />The Sleep Number bed's inventor has set his sights on a new way to heat your <br />home. <br />Dick Youngblood, Star Tribune <br />Bob Walker's 12,000-square-foot dream house turned into a bit of a nightmare <br />when he opened his first heating bill and saw the number: $1,675! <br />His response was predictable for the man who invented the Sleep Number bed <br />and founded Select Comfort Corp., the $700 million Wall Street favorite that <br />manufactures it. <br />Walker, 63, spent three years researching alternative fuels, designing a <br />remarkably efficient corn-burning stove and raising $22 million to bankroll a <br />Rogers-based start-up called Bixby Energy Systems. <br />The results so far: Sales are on track to reach $10 million in fiscal 2006 ending <br />May 31, the stove's second year on the market. And with orders coming in so <br />fast that Walker has been forced to find a production plant five times larger, he <br />figures sales in fiscal 2007 will reach $40 million. <br />And that's just for starters. The way Walker sees it, the corn-burning stove is but <br />a baby step on the way to his ultimate goal: an integrated home-heating system <br />that includes a furnace capable of burning biomass fuel pellets manufactured <br />out of crop, animal and human waste and delivered to customers, all by Bixby or <br />a licensee. <br />Walker has spent several years developing a proprietary process for producing <br />his fuel pellets and already has acquired the system he figures can be adapted <br />to deliver them. It's called Step-Saver, a Redwood Falls company that has a <br />patented system for pumping salt in bulk through the foundation of a client's <br />home directly into a water softener's storage tank. <br />Walker figures if delivery can be done with salt, a similar system can be used to <br />deliver pellets to a furnace. <br />"I see us as the Standard Oil of biomass energy," Walker said. "I think this could <br />be abillion-dollar business." <br />Are we talking pipe dreams here? Not according to a gathering of investment <br />bankers and venture capitalists with a focus on alternative fuels; Bixby was one <br />of 75 companies invited a year ago to present business plans. The upshot: The <br />Minnesota company walked away with one of five "Most Promising Company" <br />awards. <br />The success of Bixby's corn stove, the 50,000-BTU MaxFire, offers more <br />http://wwwstaztribune.com/539/v-print/story/408033.htm1 5/10/2006 <br />