Refined stubble could be coal substitute, team finds

Members of a Chinese research team said they have invented a new technology that could transform largely useless farm stubble and straw into fuel that's just as efficient and environmentally friendly as natural gas but at a much lower cost.

The invention, which the team believes is like finding a virtually inexhaustible energy source, could contribute to China's air pollution control campaign. But the technology has yet to be marketed, hindered mainly by the lack of national standards.

Highly efficient combustion can occur in a dust explosion. Based on this theory, the team - from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei province - created a machine in 2004 to break stubble and straw into particles with a diameter of less than 250 microns - a potentially volatile size.