They're developing technology that grinds wood, cornstalks and other plant waste into a powder finer than baking flour that -- when blown into the air -- can be set aflame. The flame produces heat without smoke or smell.

The heat can be used to warm water or buildings or to make electricity. Still in its infancy, the technology already has the interest of the World Bank, which sees its potential to improve the lives of millions in developing nations.

The idea of burning powder is so simple, McKnight could hardly believe no one else had thought of it first.

Kim McKnight, a mechanical engineer who lives in Ithaca, came to his father in late 2006 with what he thought was a breakthrough in fuel systems that run on corn and wood pellets.

"Well, if pellets are big breakthrough, what would happen if you made it into a powder?" James McKnight asked his son. Under the right conditions, powder can be explosive. A search of the patent literature turned up nothing along those lines.

So they bought some wood powder, commonly used as a filler in plastics, and an off-the-homestore-shelf paint sprayer."The powder would burn like a flame," McKnight said. "Eureka!"

The powder has some advantages over petroleum-based fuels. It's renewable -- that is, it grows back after it's cut down. The flame can be instantly turned off by cutting off the flow of powder (try doing that with a burning log or wood pellets). The powder also doesn't pose a fire hazard if it's spilled: The wood particles have to be suspended in the air to burn.

The energy produced costs the equivalent of $1.40 per gallon of heating oil, according to McKnight. The current price for heating oil is about $2.50 a gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And unlike biofuels such as corn ethanol, the powdered fuel can be made from plant material that would otherwise remain on the forest floor or farmer's field -- not from plants that can feed people or animals.

Summerhill filed U.S. patent applications in 2007.

Since then, the McKnights have been tinkering with their low-tech setup, using parts bought from farm catalogs and the Home Depot and even a windshield wiper motor. The burners can be made as small as 50,000 British thermal units -- enough for a residential water heater -- to millions of Btus, enough to heat commercial greenhouses or grain-drying operations on a farm.

The research phase is done, McKnight says. Summerhill has figured out how to make the powder and build the burners.

looks good...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~