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9:00 Chairperson’s Remarks

9:50 Biobutanol Production: Emerging New Technologies
Thaddeus Ezeji, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Animal Sciences, The Ohio State University
Advances in acetone-butanol (AB) fermentation research with focus on butanol characteristics as biofuel, genetic manipulation of the butanologenic clostridia, as well as upstream and downstream processing of biobutanol will be presented. The principal problem associated with acetone-butanol fermentation by butanologenic clostridia is butanol toxicity/inhibition to the culture. To solve this problem, insight will be given on various emerging new technologies that have been developed to address butanol toxicity to butanologenic cultures. These technologies were developed to facilitate simultaneous butanol fermentation and removal. A lot of progress has been made in these efforts and details will be presented.

10:20 Bioconversion of Lignocellusics to Butanol (a superior fuel) and Process Technology
Nasib Qureshi, Ph.D., Chemical Engineer, Fermentation Biotechnology Research, NCAUR, USDA
Economic studies on bioconversion of corn to butanol have demonstrated that cost of substrate affects butanol price most. Hence, to produce butanol cost competitively, economically available substrates should be used. Additionally, process technology such as reactor designs and energy efficient product recovery systems play important roles in producing this biofuel cost competitively. For these studies we used lignocellulosic residues such as wheat straw (WS), corn stover (CS), barley straw (BS), and switchgrass (SW) and produced butanol in batch and fed-batch fermentations. In these processes we integrated (combined) hydrolysis, fermentation and product recovery in a single step. This presentation will include recent developments in butanol fermentation and process technology.

10:50 Networking Coffee Break, Poster and Exhibit Viewing

11:20 Biodiesel Production Using a Heterogeneous Catalyst
Ken Tasaki, Ph.D., Director of Technology Research, MC-USA
In our presentation, we will discuss a new biodiesel production process using a heterogeneous catalyst for transesterification and ion exchange resins for pre-treatment of feedstock oil and dry purification of the fuel. The new solid catalyst, either using an anion exchange resin or an enzyme-immobilized resin, eliminates (1) the use of alkali catalyst, (2) a large amount of water for water-washing, and (3) the removal of alkali metals and water from the final product. Additionally, the glycerol co-product arising from biodiesel production is of higher quality when compared to the conventional homogeneous catalysis method. The resultant fuel is fundamentally cleaner in the absence of saponification and water,having inherently lower amount of K or Na. The physical space and cost for large water-washing and settling tanks can be saved, reducing the size of the operation site, and also eliminates the need for a waste-water treatment facility, which can be expensive. In pre-treatment of feedstock prior to transesterification, the new cation exchange resin can esterify FFA, thus not only reducing the amount of FFA in the raw oil feedstock, but also increasing the overall yield of the fuel. This reduces the acid number of the final product, which is specified in ASTM D6751. Since the cation exchange resin can remove a variety of impurities including FFA, a wide range of feedstock oil qualities can be accepted. In short, the new process will not only significantly simplify biodiesel production, thereby reducing production costs, but also yield a high quality fuel that meets relevant industry specifications.

11:50 Genomic and Proteomic Analysis of the Starvation Trigger for Algal Oil Synthesis
Todd W. Lane, Ph.D., Senior Member of Technical Staff, Biosystems Research Department, Sandia National Labs 

12:20pm Technology Focus (Sponsorship Available) 

12:50 Technology Luncheon Workshop (Sponsorships Available) or Lunch on Your Own

2:10 Chairperson’s Remarks

2:15 Wastewater Challenges and Innovations in Biofuels Processing
Scott Kohl, Ph.D., ICM, Inc.
Wastewater challenges in the biofuels industry continue to increase in technical and regulatory complexity. A brief description of the regulatory issues present today and on the horizon will be discussed including organic and inorganic discharge challenges. A survey of prevailing water treatment technology for organic destruction will be discussed including high and low rate anaerobic digestion along with innovations in thermophilic and mesophilic treatment systems. In-house process water recycle issues and treatment strategies will be addressed with the goal to have zero process water discharge and ultimately zero liquid discharge to the environment for biofuels processing facilities.

2:45 Pretreatment Strategies for Biofuel Production
Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering,South Dakota State University
Pretreatment is the first and most important step in the biomass to ethanol process. In this presentation several existing pretreatment methods such as dilute acid, AFX, clean fractionation and some novel strategies such as high shear bioreactor, microwave, near-critical water, green solvents, and ultrasound methods will be reviewed. In addition, strategy for combining some of these pretreatment strategies will be discussed.

3:15 Networking Refreshment Break, Poster and Exhibit Viewing

3:45 Accelerating Sample Preparation in Biofuel Research and Development by Automated High-Output Technologies 
Josef Schroer, Ph.D., Vice President, Commercial Operations, Chemspeed Technologies
Laboratories of many other areas in the chemical industry have adopted the use of automated high-output-technologies, which is boosting productivity in the pharmaceutical industry. New research fields like “Biofuels & Renewable Energy Sources” recently started to automate their workflows to keep up with an ever-increasing amount of samples. For this reason instruments similar to the equipment, which originally has been designed to accelerate the process of Drug Discovery, now commonly is being is used also for parallel sample preparation, sample digestion and sample analysis. Multiple dispensing of solid and liquid samples, sample treatment with corrosive chemicals under harsh conditions, work-up steps like filtration & SPE purification are only some of the most common and relevant workflow steps. Other technical requirements to these instruments might differ from workflow to workflow. Generally, a diverse set of complex unit operations needs to be covered, which represents a characteristic of each individual workflow. For this reason only flexible, highly modular, and scalable equipment has the chance of covering the diverse R&D needs of these emerging fields. Using selected examples, from the “Biofuels & Renewable Energy” Industry, this presentation will show how a variety of challenging parallel workflows has been fully automated.

4:15 Impact of Steam pH in Ethanol Production 
Lee Van Dixhorn, Business Development Engineer, Hydro-Thermal Corporation
Direct Steam Injection (DSI) is used extensively in the liquefaction/fermentation stages of corn-based ethanol plants. Ongoing improvements to this well-established technology are described. DSI for second-generation ethanol requires different technology, but effectiveness is being verified. This equipment plays a key role in the biochemical pre-treatment process which sufficiently hydrolyzes and opens up the structure of lignin-based biomass feedstocks to allow efficient and effective enzyme hydrolysis of the hemicellulosic sugars.

4:45 Closing Comments

5:15 Close of “Innovations in Biofuels 2008” Conference

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