POTSDAM — The Potsdam Commerce Park was alive with energy Tuesday. ZeroPoint Clean Tech researchers were abuzz about the firm's latest sustainable technology — which was about to convert wood scraps into biodiesel.

"We're going to stay here until we fall asleep, basically," financial analyst Kurt H. West said. "We've been gasifying wood pellets and now we're going to turn them into reactor liquid diesel fuel. We believe we're one of very few companies in the world to accomplish this to date."

It's one of the first systems capable of converting plant scraps like wood chips, palm pellets, sugar cane waste and switchgrass into diesel. The small-scale technology is aimed at empowering communities to create a biofuel energy infrastructure.

"If we get this done, it's kind of a big deal. It's a global warming achievement," ZeroPoint Chief Executive Officer John P. Gaus said. "We're probably more experienced with different types of biomass than literally anybody else on the planet right now."

Once the technology is perfected, the Potsdam plant would be capable of powering every car in town — those that run on diesel, anyway — with carbon-neutral fuel.

Instead of adapting its technology for use in big refineries, as some companies are doing, ZeroPoint hopes to produce small-scale plants that use local resources and distribute only to surrounding areas. And because it can convert virtually any plant-derived matter into diesel, the firm could use local sources of biomass to cut down on the energy waste associated with hauling biomass to faraway plants and shipping the finished product to consumers.

"We're looking to use local stocks in a very local, nonintrusive setting," Mr. West said. "This gives us the first baseline of where we're heading."

Since it doesn't use food sources such as corn or soybeans, ZeroPoint's biodiesel technology also avoids the problems associated with the development of ethanol, such as rising food prices and the deforestation of land to grow the subsidized crops, which in turn creates more carbon dioxide emissions.

In fact, since the firm is concentrating on plant waste products that might otherwise be left to rot — treetops left behind by loggers, for instance — it may also help to reduce methane emissions.

ZeroPoint's technology is based on the work of Philip D. Leveson, a senior research scientist at Clarkson University and chief scientist for the green startup.

"If we use locally derived biomass, the fuel is essentially CO2-free. The CO2 is going round and round instead of up," Mr. Leveson said.

Eventually, researchers will pump that biodiesel into a Chevrolet Silverado and a GMC Sierra pickup donated to Clarkson University and ZeroPoint by General Motors in 2006.

That first drive will be the true test of ZeroPoint's technology, Mr. West said. The company hopes to reach that milestone in the coming weeks.

Investors from India and Europe were on hand Tuesday. They're looking to bring ZeroPoint's technology around the globe — and soon. The company already has secured its first commercial contract with a New York firm and plans to replicate its biofuel technology in Tonawanda.

"From technology created at Clarkson, proved in Potsdam and created in Tonawanda, this is going to be shipped all over the world," Mr. West said.

The green energy firm received more than $7 million in funding last year, including $1 million from Seaway Private Equity Corp.