NY company’s technology grinds biomass into powder for heat

Biomass Magazine November 2009
By Lisa Gibson
Posted November 12, 2009, at 3:22 p.m. CST

Summerhill Biomass Systems, a new company based in New York, has developed a system that can grind up almost any type of plant waste into a fine powder for conversion to heat, according to the company.

Summerhill has patents pending on its proprietary process and combustion physics, according to James McKnight, president and chairman of the board, and his son Lee McKnight, member of the board of directors. Combustion is up to 99.5 percent complete, they said, with no smoke or odor. The user can control the temperature with a thermostat, a feature not readily found on wood pellet or other biomass systems, they added. Feedstocks can include corn stalks, timber and manure. “We can produce energy from the waste products that other biomass producers and green energy companies leave behind,” Lee McKnight said.

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