Advocating for Public Policies to Promote the Development & Production of Alternative Fuels, Renewable Chemicals, Biobased Products, and Sustainable Aviation Fuels
Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition
Track 1 Session Details
AFCC Conference Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions are 90 minutes, each one has one moderator with a maximum of four to five speakers.
Breakout sessions will be focused on the following five subject areas:
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Track 1: Biobased Manufacturing: Renewable Chemicals, Bioplastics, Biopolymers, Biomaterials Creating a Cleaner Planet
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Track 2: Sustainable Feedstocks and Biofuels, Driving Decarbonization
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Track 4: Synthetic Biology, Alternative Proteins, Regenerative Agriculture, Food & Fiber
Track 1 Breakout Session Details​
​Biobased Manufacturing: Renewable Chemicals, Bioplastics, Biopolymers, Biomaterials Creating a Cleaner Planet
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This Track is Sponsored by:
Thursday, November 21, 2024
All sessions for this Track will be held in Annapolis 1
Session 1: 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM: Manufacturing Progress on Low Carbon Intensity (CI Score) Renewable Chemicals
Moderator: Joel Stone, President ConVergInce Advisers, President & Executive Director of Climate Systems Solutions
Speakers:
Can we produce alternative chemicals and materials that offer a low carbon intensity score by using alternatives to fossil fuels as feedstock? Yes. The panel will discuss how some of these companies are progressing. Join this diverse panel of thought leaders in Renewable Chemicals and delivering ideas and solutions to supply value added chemicals. We will discuss different perspectives about how their solutions have an influence in meeting a negative carbon economy. These technologies are taking advantage of the power efficient productivity metrics that offer diverse solutions towards a common goal of low carbon intensity delivering low CI score products.
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Nelson Barton, Geno
We work closely with some of the world’s leading brands to develop solutions that align superior performance and economics with sustainability. We also produce and market our own branded products and license our geno technology to some of the world’s largest manufacturers including Novamont, Qore® (a joint venture of Cargill and HELM), Covestro, and Aquafil.
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Andrew Held, Virent
Creating low carbon chemicals and fuels that is patented technology features catalytic chemistry to convert plant-based materials into a full range of products identical to those made from petroleum, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemicals for plastics and fibers.
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Mark Simmers, Celtic Renewables
Patented technology converts low-value byproducts, residues and waste into high-value green chemicals which directly displace chemicals made from gas and oil in the manufacturing process and lower the carbon footprint of everyday products like skin creams, nail varnish, household cleaning products, paints, medicines and vitamins.
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Corey Tyree, Trillium Renewables
Commercializing a technology to convert plant-based feedstocks into acrylonitrile, a green drop-in replacement for fossil-based acrylonitrile. Trillium recently completed a successful pilot plant program.​​
Session 2: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM: Performance Applications from Renewable Biomass and in-situ Decarbonization through Combined Processes
Moderator: James Iademarco, President, Strategic Avalanche Consulting
Speakers:
These leading companies will provide their status in commercializing by using biotechnology tools such as renewable biomass, synthetic biology, chemical catalysis and process scale-up to decarbonize providing solutions to bio-based manufacturing platforms in the production of high-performance biobased materials.
Session 3: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM: Biotechnology for the Production of Materials
Moderators: Doug Cameron, President, Alberti Advisors, LLC
Jeffrey Cameron, Associate Professor, Dept of Biochemistry, CU-Boulder
Speakers:
Much of industrial biotechnology is focused on the production of relatively simple molecules such as solvents, organic acids, amino acids, diols and polyols. The focus of this session is to examine and explore applications of biotechnology for the production of much more complex products such as polymers, composite materials and even inorganic materials such as cement. Issues to be addressed include biological control of factors such as monomer composition, molecular weight, and material properties. The understanding and implementation of such knowledge is necessary to achieve the full potential of industrial biotechnology.
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Session 4: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM: Biomanufacturing to Scale – the Challenges and Solutions
Moderator: Doris De Guzman, Independent Consultant, Green D Market Analytics
Speakers:
There continues to be issues associated with scaling up and having finance backing. Scaling up industrial biotechnology processes presents unique challenges due to small product margins, large batch sizes, inherent unpredictability, technical intricacies, and regulatory hurdles. To overcome these challenges, collaboration among industry, academia, stable policies, and government is crucial. These panelists will describe their challenges in scaling, and path forward in speed to market entry.
Friday, November 22, 2024
All sessions for this Track will be held in Annapolis 1
Session 5: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM: Next Generation Platforms for Biomanufacturing
Moderator: Brent Aufdembrink, Innovations Director, Corporate Research Fellow, Cargill Bioindustrial
Speakers:
Ji Yeon Kim
Recipient of Industrial Biotechnology Best Paper Award
Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology
Combining the scalability of industrial biotechnologies through the innovative power of microbial conversion and enzyme biology, into next generation biomanufacturing will be presented. This has led to the creation of new technology platforms and innovative renewables. Synthesizing renewable chemicals through new pathways using advances in microbial conversion engineering is transformative. These panelists will describe renewable chemicals and other innovative biobased products that can be produced to scale in their respective biomanufacturing platforms.
Synata Bio has a carbon transformation platform that leverages industrial biotechnology to produce sustainable commodities from low value carbon and renewable energy.
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Ji Yeon, Recipient of Industrial Biotechnology Best Paper Award, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & TechnologyBiobased; Production of Succinic Acid and its Derivatives Using Metabolically Engineered Microorganisms
As concerns over climate crisis and environmental issues continue to mount, there is an urgent need to transition towards a more sustainable society. One key aspect of this transition is establishing systems for production of industrially important chemicals from fossil feedstocks to renewable biomass. Succinic acid, a four-carbon dicarboxylic acid, is one of the most promising platform chemicals serving as a precursor for industrially important chemicals and as a monomer to manufacture various bio-polymers. Consequently, extensive efforts have been made to develop metabolically engineered microbial strains capable of producing succinic acid with high efficiency. In this session, the current status of microbial production of succinic acid and its derivatives will be showcased together with the downstream processes for the purification of biobased succinic acid. Additionally, future prospects on the successful industrialization of biobased succinic acid will be discussed.
Session 6: 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM: TBD
Manjusri Misra
Professor
University of Guelph
There continues to be a need for new sustainable approaches to decarbonize the production of polymers/plastics. Traditional materials have drawbacks, particularly in terms of greenhouse emissions and energy consumption. Biomaterials derived from renewable sources are a promising alternative, significantly reducing the greenhouse effect and enhancing energy efficiency. However, traditional materials still dominate markets, and there is lack of understanding among policymakers and developers regarding biomaterials. Bio-based materials have the potential to reduce over 320,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. They also exhibit advantages like decreasing water absorption by 40%, reducing energy consumption by 8.7%, enhancing acoustic absorption by 6.7%, and improving mechanical properties. The panelists will describe their innovative approaches to replace traditional materials.