Summerhill Biomass Systems Unveils Solid Biomass Technology System at Syr...( SYRACUSE N.Y. Oct. 16 /- Summerhill B...)

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."

"The consistency of the powder is midway between baking flour and confectionary sugar," added Summerhill Co-Founder Kim McKnight. "The way it burns, we're pretending it's a gas, without it actually being a gas."

Lee McKnight, also James' son, serves on the Summerhill board of directors and was on hand at the expo to present the company's technology. In his earlier work with Wireless Grids Corp., Lee McKnight created software that allows users to grid together computers, MP3 players, printers and cell phones so that those devices could share files and hardware across multiple networks. That software will be considered for control of biomass energy in Urban Farm/ Greenhouses, by the SEED project
'/>"/>