Summerhill Biomass Systems Unveils Solid Biomass Technology System at Syracuse Expo

Reuters
Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:01pm EDT

Syracuse University School of Information Studies Associate Professor Lee
McKnight, co-founder of nationally-acclaimed Wireless Grids Corp., is key
player in Summerhill Biomass, which is participating along with WGC in a
$200,000 SU Chancellor's Leadership Project award to the Syracuse
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Development (SEED) project, exploring wireless grids
and biomass energy innovations for community and social change

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Summerhill Biomass Systems is planting
the seeds of innovation into the Syracuse Tech Garden.

Summerhill, named after the Cayuga County community where the technology was
developed, has pending patents across the globe on its system for grinding up
timber, brush, corn stalks and other plant waste and converting the fine
powder into heat.

Dr. James T. McKnight, Summerhill president and co-founder, said he's eager to
prove that this solid form of renewable energy is more efficient than ethanol
and other types of biomass produced around the world. Central New Yorkers
will be among the first to witness a locally-produced energy system that has
global potential. "Photosynthesis as biomass is the most efficient way to
store solar energy, and excess quantities are being stored this way all the
time. Summerhill just provides the most efficient way to use this stored
solar energy" said McKnight, who helped develop products for DuPont and
Johnson & Johnson as an organic chemist before founding Summerhill with sons
Kim and Steven in 2006. "By contrast, when you grow corn, 95 percent of what
you grow (stalk) is wasted. Then you take the corn off, and it's expensive to
convert to ethanol."

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