The development of a thermophotovoltaic converter that uses combustion of wood powder as energy source has started with development of the combustion source. During the last few months, we have constructed and tested a feeding mechanism and a combustion chamber that seem very promising. We manage to keep a 10 kW flame steadily burning for several minutes at the time, generating a temperature exceeding 1400 K. The plans for continued development of this and other components of the converter are discussed in the paper.