Opportunities and Obstacles in Large-Scale Biomass Utilization—The Role of the Chemical Sciences
Organized by:
Paul Bryan, Independent Consultant; Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, University of Florida; Luis Martinez, Rollins College on behalf of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable
The Chemical Sciences Roundtable held a one-day public workshop on May 31, 2012 in Washington, DC that explored the current state of sustainable fuels and chemicals, and the issues surrounding their scalability for large-scale use. The workshop also discussed the chemistry and chemical engineering opportunities to sustainably produce large-scale quantities of biofuel. Both formal presentations and working groups were components of the workshop in an effort to stimulate engaging discussion among participants from widely varying fields.
Key questions addressed include:
• What is the current state of technology in large-scale production of sustainable fuels and chemicals?
• What are the benefits and weaknesses of current technologies?
• What are the technological and commercial barriers to scaling-up sustainable technologies?
• How can we best combine chemical technologies of different scales to maximize impact?
• How can we identify ways in which technologies of different practical scales can complement each other?
For more information, please contact Rachel Yancey at ryancey@nas.edu.
Agenda (click to download as a PDF)
8:30 a.m. Welcome & Introduction to Workshop
Paul Bryan, Planning Committee Member
PRESENTATION (PDF) | PRESENTATION RECORDING | PRESENTATION RECORDING CONTINUED
| Feedstocks & Conversion Technologies Chair, Rich Greene, US Department of Energy | |
| 8:40 a.m. | Bryce Stokes, CNJV/Department of Energy General Feedstocks & Raw Materials Talk |
| 9:40 a.m. | Brian Duff, DOE EERE |
| 10:40 a.m. | Break |
Value Chains | |
| 11:00 a.m. | Chris Somerville, University of California, Berkeley & Energy Biosciences Institute Fuels and Chemicals [from Biomass] via Biological Routes |
| 11:30 a.m. | Robert Brown, Iowa State University Fuels and Chemicals [from Biomass] via Thermochemical Routes PRESENTATION (PDF) | PRESENTATION RECORDING |
| 12:00 p.m. | Jeffrey J. Steiner, USDA Agricultural Research Service Heat and Power Production [from Biomass] PRESENATATION (PDF) | PRESENTATION RECORDING |
| 12: 30 p.m. | Lunch |
| Breakout discussions | |
| 1:30 p.m. | Three Parallel Discussions based on Value Chains: |
Group 1: Fuels and Chemicals [from Biomass] via Biological Routes | |
Group 2: Fuels and Chemicals [from Biomass] via Thermochemical Routes | |
Group 3: Heat and Power Production [from Biomass] | |
| 3:40 p.m. | Break |
Plenary Report Back & Wrap-up | |
| 4:00 p.m. | Reports from Breakout sessions |
| 4:30 p.m. | Wrap-up Panel Discussion William Hitz, Dupont |
| 5:30 p.m. | Adjourn |
For more information, please contact Rachel Yancey (ryancey@nas.edu).