The 2007 Cellulosic Ethanol Summit

The agricultural, biotech, biorefinery developer
and financial communities gather for the leading
industry building event

Building Bridges in the Cellulosic Value Chain

About the Summit

The Cellulosic Ethanol Summit has quickly established itself as the major place where all the communities in the cellulosic ethanol value chain come together in one location to discuss how to build a new national cellulosic ethanol industry. Again, this year, leaders from the agricultural, industrial biotech, biorefinery developer and financial communities will gather to share their communities' perspectives on what is needed to form an efficient and effective value chain to commercialize cellulosic ethanol production.

No single community will be able to create a viable cellulosic ethanol industry. Only through intense cooperative efforts will this be possible. This means that all the communities in the value chain will need to obtain a detailed understanding of the capabilities, challenges and needs of the other communities in the value chain in order for the industry to move forward.

The Summit provides an important opportunity to initiate profound conversations between the various communities in the value chain and it provides a powerful venue where these communities can fully understand how to build links within the value chain that are necessary to make the cellulosic ethanol industry a reality. The Summit provides a unique forum where each community discusses their activities in getting prepared to support a national cellulosic ethanol industry, outlines the key technical, organizational, economic and financial challenges it faces and then identifies the types of relationships with others that need to be established to truly support its role in the value chain.

The Summit also provides a rich opportunity for offline discussions, where everyone will have the chance to meet other groups from the value chain and to establish ongoing relationships, thus serving as a springboard for more profound relationship building in the future.

About the Pre-Summit Briefing

Developing a Feedstock Logistics Infrastructure to Support the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry: Status and Outlook

As a prelude to the Summit, this all day briefing will provide an excellent opportunity for attendees to obtain a report on the status of industry activities to develop a feedstock logistics infrastructure for collecting and shipping large volumes of biomass to biorefineries.

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Ethanol will not be enough

"Twenty in 10," the catchy phrase he used in his January 2007 State of the Union address, called for America to cut its gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017. It's an admirable goal, one that we should all embrace; achieving that goal may be easier said than done.

So let's give the president a little credit for issuing this long-overdue energy challenge. Before we do though, we need to understand the math; the numbers are against us. America currently imports a staggering 14 million barrels of crude oil every day. According to the Energy Information Administration, that number has increased by some 3 million barrels just since Bush took office and it continues to grow.

The obvious first step in lowering our use in fossil fuels is to stop increasing consumption, but it’s not that simple. Americans have a love affair with the automobile; most everyone likes to drive. Driving requires a fuel source and the primary resource is fossil fuel. We need to develop and improve alternative fuel options and make them cost effective. You can bet that OPEC doesn’t want this to happen; some would go so far as to say that major oil companies in the US are not very anxious to have the oil demand reduced as well. Read more http://e85.whipnet.net/why.e85/e85-is-not-enough.html

Brazillian Authorities Raid Sugar Cane Plantation

June 2007

Sugar Cane Cutters or Indebted Slaves?

Brazil is a well known, large user of sugar-cane based ethanol; 80% of all new cars sold in Brazil are "flex-fuel" models that run on gasoline, ethanol or any combination of the two.

Ethanol currently sells for about half the price of gasoline in Brazil; it is inexpensive and accounts for nearly 20% of the country's annual fuel consumption. Increasing international demand and billions of financial dollars is allowing Brazil to expand due to being a major exporter of ethanol.