Academia, government and industry experts to focus on critical topics driving commercialization of bioenergy facilities
Austin, Texas (November 24, 2008) — Emerson Process Management will host the first in a series of regional bioenergy summits to discuss how to successfully tackle the challenge of translating alternative fuels technology into large-scale production, helping create a sustainable and commercially viable alternative fuels industry sector.
The first summit, "BioRefinery/BioEnergy Summit: Reducing the Risks of Migrating Vision to Production" will be held December 11 in Madison, Wisconsin. It will look at the opportunities for alternative fuels to contribute to global energy supply-demand gaps and share best production practices and contemporary plant automation technologies for alternative fuels commercialization.
The gap between conventional and total production is increasing. According to the International Energy Association (IEA) World Energy Outlook 2008, the world oil shortage will reach 28.6 million barrels a day by 2030. Filling this gap requires alternatives to conventional crude production.
"Alternative fuels are becoming 'imperative fuels' in order to meet the global energy demands of the future," says Alan Novak, summit leader and director of alternative fuels for Emerson Process Management. "These regional summits are designed to take a close look at how to reduce project risk, costs and time-to-market schedules so that bioenergy facilities can successfully and quickly go from blueprint to production."
With a focus on second-generation biofuels and bioenergy facilities, the summit invites alternative fuels thought-leaders and industry experts to examine the economic, technical and environmental realities of turning non-foodstuff feedstock into renewable and eco-friendly transportation fuels or energy for refineries, chemical plants, pulp mills, and other industries.
Summit presenters include:
T. Randall Fortenbery, director of the RENK Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who will discuss feedstock sustainability and the impact for first- and second-generation processes
Greg Keenan, vice president of business development at Virent, a Madison-based hydrocarbon biofuels company, who will discuss commercialization challenges
Timothy Donohue, director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, one of several centers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, who will address removing bottlenecks in the biofuels pipeline
Michael McAdams, director of the Advanced Biofuels Coalition, who will address legislative impacts on second-generation biorefinery development
Alan Novak, director of alternative fuels for Emerson Process Management, will show how plant automation and intelligent process control systems can help biofuels facilities reduce risk for more efficient production and scalability.
The IEA World Energy Outlook 2008 report notes the key factors in achieving commercially viable bioenergy facilities are to "prove the optimum technologies at a commercial scale, increase the scale of production, exploit the learning curve, and apply process optimization and integration techniques."
The Madison summit is the first of a series of regional bioenergy events tailored to technologies under development around the country. The next Emerson BioEnergy Summit is February 19 in Denver.
For more information or to register for the summit, go to .
About Emerson Process Management
Emerson Process Management (), an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing and distribution in the chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, power, water and wastewater treatment, mining and metals, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries. The company combines superior products and technology with industry-specific engineering, consulting, project management and maintenance services.
About Emerson
Emerson (NYSE:EMR), based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to provide innovative solutions for customers through its network power, process management, industrial automation, climate technologies, and appliance and tools businesses. Sales in fiscal 2008 were $24.8 billion.
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