International Conference 1st International Biorefinery Workshop

Website: www.biorefineryworkshop.com/
Summary Information



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Biological Conversion : Drying/Pretreatment : International Activities - Other : Separation/Fractionation : Storage/Transport



Meeting Report

The 1st International Biorefinery Workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of The two-day event provided a forum for a technical review of state-of-the-art research leading to the development of biorefinery technologies. The workshop consisted of over 300 participants from more than 20 countries representing diverse fields such as agriculture, forestry, fuels, chemicals, automotive, petroleum, academia, research laboratory, financial, NGO's and government. There were over 70 speakers and moderators involved in plenary sessions on future transport systems and biorefinery opportunities, as well as eight technical breakout sessions on a wide range of topics.

The Secretary of Energy opened the event, stating that "Biorefining has enormous potential across a host of applications." Further, the Secretary stressed the importance of biomass along with other renewables, explaining that as "the science and engineering advance, and technology continues to improve, we are finding more and more ways for renewable energy sources to contribute a greater share of our overall energy mix, moving away from our reliance on finite resources like fossil fuels."

This first of a kind workshop had a bold goal, to bring together key players critical to the success of the biorefinery concept and to highlight the successful technologies. The information shared, the newly developed partnerships, and the collaboration between the United States and the European Commission was an important first step in successfully implementing the biorefinery as one solution to the world's energy problems.

One of the novel aspects of the workshop was that it allowed a diverse group of industries, who normally would not have reason to interact, to come together and address common technical and market issues. Participants included members of the forestry, automotive, pulp and paper, petroleum, chemicals, agriculture, financial, and research communities. Numerous global companies were represented. The workshop fostered opportunities for new partnerships and collaborations. Reasons cited for the strong participation included increasing awareness of the potential of the integrated biorefinery, increasing oil prices, and interest in learning about technical developments occurring internationally.

The timing of the workshop was particularly appropriate in light of sharply increasing oil prices, likely senate passage of a long-sought energy bill, and continued misinformation circulating in the press refuting the energy benefits of ethanol. In fact, the closing presentation highlighted the deficiencies of the Pimentel analysis including flawed assumptions and calculations.

An important aspect of the workshop aimed to evaluate biorefinery markets and opportunities. One of the biggest problems is getting investors to pump money into technologies that make up the biorefinery. Government incentives and biorefinery deployment barriers were discussed as an important aspect of the workshop. A participant in the Biorefinery Deployment Breakout Session said, "We need to leverage the existing capital and also encourage domestic and international partnerships for the development and deployment of biorefineries." It is this type of thinking which the workshop aimed to help foster.

The workshop was successful in disseminating information on successful research and demonstration projects occurring both in the U.S. and internationally. The strengths of the U.S. and EU were identified, showing U.S. strengths in sugars conversion technologies and the EU strengths in thermochemical conversion. Future workshops could build upon these lessons learned, focus on specific areas of technical challenges and capitalize respective strengths.

It was noted by DOE and EU that both the U.S. and EU have a common goal: Agriculture in the 21st century will become the oil wells of the future -- providing fuels, chemicals and products for a global community. As stated by the Secretary, "because biomass technologies hold great promise for our world community and are a promising route to renewable hydrogen production, our Administration is working to make the production of hydrogen from biomass more cost effective and to move the nation one step closer to a hydrogen economy." Although the U.S. and EU have similar energy use profiles and both place high priority on energy security and carbon neutrality, there remain differences in methods to addressing priorities. This workshop proved a useful venue for evaluating those differences and identifying opportunities for collaboration.