Economist Global Energy Conversation

The Economist is hosting their second Global Energy Conversation on Friday, November 18 and POET President Jeff Lautt will particiapte as an online expert on biofuels. Lautt will be joined by other experts, academics, corporates and media to discuss the technological and political solutions that can help the world achieve its long-term energy goals.

You can register to particpate in the conversation by clicking here. Let me know in the comments below if you have any points you think Jeff should make during the conversation.

NAMA Trends in Agriculture

"Progress through Productivity" is the theme of the annual NAMA Trends in Agriculture Conference scheduled for next week in Kansas City, Mo. NAMA is the association for professionals in marketing and communications in agriculture.

On November 8, I will speak with Ohio State University Professor Matt Roberts in a session titled "Trends in Energy and Alternative Fuels." Dr. Roberts and I are going to cover the current and future biofuel markets and what the latest trends mean for growers and communicators.

Other speakers during the two-day event will address how agriculture can feed a growing population through innovation and responsible stewardship of the land. Due to the mission of NAMA, they will also look at the role that information technology will play in the future of agriculture.

As someone who spends a fair amount of time communicating in an industry tied to agriculture, I'm looking forward to the event. I always like to meet people who do related work, so if you're planning to attend, look me up when you get there.

Since I just can't get enough of KC, I'll be sticking around the next day for the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Annual Convention where POET Founder & CEO Jeff Broin will participate in Trade Talk.

POET at Plain Green

Plain Green 2011 is in Sioux Falls tomorrow and POET will be there. We are one of the event sponsors and I will speak on the Renewable Energy in South Dakota panel at 2:30.

If you're planning to attend, be sure to swing by our booth to learn about POET's sustainability efforts. You might even get a small gift.

Talking innovation in Minneapolis

As I said in a blog post last week, I was in Minneapolis for a conference on innovations in the Midwestern Biofuels industry. It proved to be two good days of conversation between ethanol producers and environmental groups.

I was joined at the conference by my colleague, Erin Heupel, the Director of Environment & Technology at POET. Here’s her presentation:

Alternative Approaches to Process Steam

View more presentations from POET

The Great Plains Institute hosted the meeting and summarized it in a recent email:

Leaders from the biofuels industry and the environmental community gathered in Minneapolis this week to discuss strategies for "greening" the existing corn ethanol industry. Organized by the Great Plains Institute and co-hosted by the Midwestern Governor's Association, the Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry meeting was planned in conjunction with several ethanol, agriculture and environmental groups.

"Convening diverse interests and facilitating the open exchange of information and ideas is a key part of  what we do at the Great Plains Institute," said GPI Bioenergy and Transportation Program Manager Brendan Jordan.  "This meeting was an important first step to engage leaders from the ethanol industry and environmental and agricultural organizations in constructive dialogue on how best to achieve mutually beneficial environmental and efficiency-related goals." 

Meeting participants - including ethanol producers, environmental community leaders, trade organizations, agribusiness, public sector, and academics - discussed the improving environmental profile of the ethanol industry. Presentations highlighted that the industry has become far more efficient and lowered its carbon intensity over the past decade.

The existing industry will remain focused on implementing cost-saving technologies.  Several additional technologies that may further reduce carbon intensity in ethanol production require extensive up-front capital investment and are unlikely to see widespread adoption until the financial environment improves.  Lower carbon intensity policies in California, Europe and other jurisdictions may provide some additional motivation for ethanol producers to adopt lower carbon intensity technologies, but meeting participants generally felt that existing policy is not sufficient. Participants discussed modifications to existing policies, and also discussed what additional policies may be helpful.

Meeting participants agreed that there are areas of common ground, and that they should be working together to figure out how to encourage investment in the existing industry, just as we work to encourage investment in second generation facilities.

Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry planning committee members included representatives from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Monsanto, Natural Resources Defense Council, POET, Renewable Fuels Association and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Twin Cities Conferences

I'm going to be in the Twin Cities next week for a couple of conferences. The first is Innovation in the Midwestern Biofuels Industry, hosted by the Great Plains Institute. This meeting will involve ethanol producers and environmental groups in a discussion about reducing the carbon footprint of existing Midwestern biofuels production. I'm moderating a panel of several biofuels producers discussing advanced technologies that are reducing carbon in their production facilities.

The second is the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Indirect Land Use Change Conference. From the description on their web site: "This one-day conference will bring together the nation’s leading thinkers on the issues on land use and biofuel sustainability to talk about where the debate on ILUC stands, and where we must go to ensure the sustainability of the next generation of biofuels."

I'll report back after the conferences on this blog, so stay tuned.

Conservation Biomass

At the America's Grasslands Conference in Sioux Falls this week, I was joined by Steve Apfelbaum, head scientist of The Earth Partners, to announce the launch of Conservation Biomass. Working together, our organizations aim to develop a source biomass that comes from restored marginal lands and is used to produce power. The ultimate goal is to make that biomass cost competitive with current power sources while delivering real environmental benefits.

The conservation biomass will initially be delivered to POET Biorefining - Chancellor, a 100 million gallon per year grain ethanol production facility in Chancellor, S.D. That facility is powered by landfill gas from the Sioux Falls landfill and a solid fuel boiler, where the biomass will be burned. Eventually, we intend to use it as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol.

We made the announcement at the America's Grasslands Conference because we wanted to seek out the expertise of those who are managing grasslands and restoring native prairies. Steve and I spoke during lunch on the first day of the conference and you can watch our speeches here or on POET TV.

For more information on Conservation Biomass, check out our press release and this news story from Ethanol Producer Magazine. Also, be sure to visit the web site of The Earth Partners.

POET at the America's Grasslands Conference

This week Sioux Falls is hosting the America's Grasslands Conference and POET is a sponsor. We hosted a tour of our corporate headquarters today for a handfull of attendees. We showed them some grasses from the EcoSun Prairie Farm that were in a fermentation study and talked about the potential of cellulosic ethanol from grasses.

Tomorrow, I will speak at the lunch about a new project POET is working on called conservation biomass. I also plan to hang out at the conference most of Tuesday and Wednesday and will share my thoughts on this blog later in the week. Stay tuned!

2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop

POET will be busy at the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Indianapolis, Ind. next week. We will have a couple of speakers, which you can read about in our release, and will host a tour of our newest plant, POET Biorefining - Cloverdale.

Following an acquisition, POET Biorefining - Cloverdale started producing ethanol in March of this year. Read more about it in Vital: Tipoff for a Whole New Ballgame.

We'll also be having some fun at booth #1101, so if you're in town, be sure to stop by.

Can the World's Energy Infrastructure be Repurposed?

Through efficiency and flexibility, significant portions of the current infrastructure can be repurposed for greener energy sources. That was the tentative consensus of a panel discussion earlier this week at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

The question put to the panel, titled Repurposing Energy Infrastructure, by Milken Institute Senior Fellow Joel Kurtzman was this:

Over the last 120 years, the world has invested something on the order of $100 trillion in the current energy infrastructure. Is there a way that we can move toward more desirable energy sources and a more secure energy system through repurposing some of this tremendous infrastructure rather than abandoning it?

POET Chairman and CEO Jeff Broin pointed out that we've been repurposing gasoline infrastructure for ethanol in the U.S. for a couple of decades so that today, ethanol makes up ten percent of the U.S. gasoline supply. Moving forward, Broin said it will be important for the infrastructure to remain flexible because gasoline will be around for a long time. That can best be accomplished through flex pumps and flex fuel vehicles that would allow ethanol to gradually replace more gasoline with only moderate changes to the current infrastructure.

The perspectives of "drop-in fuels" and electric vehicles were also represented on the panel. Dr. Frances Arnold, a co-founder of Gevo, talked about the expected advantages of drop-in fuels like butanol if they can reach commercial scale. Steven (Mac) Heller, executive chairman of electric car and battery company CODA Automotive, said that the existing electrical infrastructure is fuel flexible and largely domestic, but that the big challenge will be getting large numbers of electric vehicles on the road.

Also participating was Karen Alderman Harbert, President and CEO of the Institute for 21st Century Energy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Harbert, who referred to herself as the "token policy wonk," said that the days of big energy subsidies are coming to an end because of the government's budget woes. One concept the U.S. Chamber is supporting is a Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA) that would help develop clean energy technologies.

Kurtzman asked provactively whether or not the government should even have an energy policy. The panel generally agreed that government must play a role in speeding up the adoption of promising technologies and providing a stable climate for investors and developers. Broin said that stable policy and incentives for infrastructure were important areas where government could contribute.

There are certainly challenges to repurposing energy infrastructure, but the panel was largely optimistic about achieving some degree of success. As Dr. Arnold said: "The answer to the question had better be yes because $100 trillion is hard to find these days."

It was a lively discussion. To watch a video of the panel, go to the Milken web site.

POET at the Growth Energy Leadership Conference

POET will get together with other ethanol industry stakeholders at the Growth Energy annual leadership conference starts today in Las Vegas. POET CEO Jeff Broin, Senior VP of Public Policy and Corporate Affairs Rob Skjonsberg and Senior VP of Communications Greg Breukelman are all board members of Growth Energy and will speak at the conference.

As the Co-Chair of Growth Energy, Jeff will give the welcome at the start of the conference and particpate in one of the many panels. Rob will be on a panel that talks about what's next for E15 and Greg's panel will talk about American Ethanol's historic new partnership with NASCAR.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on the conference and POET's participation.