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Relentless Push to Eliminate Particulate Matter Air Pollution Accelerates

MF Fire has been transforming wood heat into clean, renewable energy, and eliminating particulate matter from wood fires since 2014. Today, MF Fire announced it received two (2) Department of Energy grants from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy totaling $2 million to aggressively advance the state of the art for particulate matter reduction in wood stoves.

“MF Fire is honored to receive two of the three grants awarded across our entire industry. It speaks volumes about the capabilities and expertise of the team. These funds will fuel a dramatic increase in the size of our engineering, research and product teams, all of whom will be based in Baltimore.” said Paul LaPorte, MF Fire’s CEO.

Wood stoves remain a mainstay heating option for 50 million Americans who get some or all of their heat from wood. Worldwide, half a billion people rely on wood for heat. All those fires contribute large amounts of air pollution in the form of particulate matter (PM2.5) and climate-changing carbon dioxide (CO2).

The two grants will help MF Fire develop and validate two unique technologies in preparation for broad commercial roll-out. One technology is for a device that continuously monitors performance of key combustion indicators and delivers real-time user guidance to enable consumers to get the most efficiency from their stoves while minimizing particulate emissions. The second technology is for a “swirl stove” that induces and maintains swirling combustion, continuously achieving optimal air/fuel mixing that is expected to lead to near-zero emissions.

Ryan Fisher, MF Fire’s COO and co-founder stated, “PM2.5 is the leading environmental cause of poor health and premature death. In the United States, 40% of all particulate matter comes from burning wood. Eliminating particulate matter from wood fires would have an enormous impact on air quality and the lives of millions of people.”

LaPorte added, “Baltimore and early funding partners TEDCO’s Maryland Innovation Initiative, Abell Foundation, and the University of Maryland’s Momentum Fund believed in MF Fire from the very beginning and we are gratified that we can accelerate our efforts to deliver jobs and economic growth back into our Baltimore community.”

Headquartered in Baltimore, MD, MF Fire is transforming wood heat into clean energy. MF Fire is a technology company built by fire scientists, leveraging advanced combustion science to engineer superior fire products. MF Fire is committed to delivering the cleanest wood stove technology on the planet. There are 50 million Americans who rely on wood for heat and 500 million people worldwide. Traditional wood stoves create major health problems. MF Fire re-imagined the wood stove as a clean energy source and created the cleanest burning stove ever tested. MF Fire’s patented technologies help power the first fully automated, smart wood stove, Catalyst. MF Fire is the MIT Clean Energy Prize Winner, and the Grand Prize and Low Emissions Prize Winner of the 2015 Next Generation Wood Stove Design Challenge.

Our fire scientists have been working hard to take our prototype, the Mulciber, to the next level. We now have the Catalyst, an energy efficient wood stove that delivers the perfect burn every time.

At press time, there are only 10 days left to invest in MF Fire on SeedInvest. We are seeking funding to scale this prototype into a market-ready product available to consumers. For those considering investing, we thought we’d provide 10 great reasons to invest in MF Fire.

Ready now? Click here to stoke the fire and invest in MF Fire.

Top 10 reasons to invest in MF Fire

1. The fastest growing renewable energy is wood. Don’t believe the misconception that wood heat is a dying industry. In fact, 12 million homes use wood as a primary or secondary heat source. Don’t believe us? Read more here.
2. Catalyst is the first wood fire completely driven by your smart phone. Watch how it works here.
3. We aren’t just smart, we’re clean.
4. We are award winning – we won the MIT Clean Energy Prize Energy Efficiency Prize AND the People’s Choice Award.  The purpose of this competition is to catalyze energy efficiency in the market by providing awards to teams of innovative entrepreneurs and encouraging them to build the most energy efficient wood stove ever.
5. We won the Wood Stove Design Challenge Grand Prize, where ten judges scored applicants based on emissions, efficiency, innovation, market appeal and safety.  Our stove tested the best, even with unseasoned wood, and improves safety by reducing the effort needed by the operator.
6. We saw the lowest emissions ever from a wood stove at the Wood Stove Decathlon – less than 0.2 grams per hour! That’s half the smoke of one cigarette. Our innovative swirl technique is how we make the most energy efficient wood stove on the market.
7. Smithsonian Magazine calls MF Fire “a game changer” because it lowers a person’s carbon footprint through a high tech wood burning stove.
8. And Fast Company calls Catalyst  “a Cozy Fire that Doesn’t Pollute”.
9. We just added 64 years of wood stove industry experience to our team with new Board of Advisors members Wayne Newsome and Jim Plazak.
10. We have hundreds of reservations, now we just need the funding.

Head on over to SeedInvest to invest in MF Fire. The link provides more information on how we got our start, who the founders are, what innovation we bring to the marketplace, and who’s taking notice. It even includes a Q&A to provide more information about our product & market strategy.

We can’t wait to have you on our team.