Custom Nicollet Deli (Chicken Caesar Focaccia, Club Focaccia, Roast Beef & Swiss, Pasta Salad, Chips, Tomato Soup, Pickles), Coffee, Iced Tea, Soda

Biomass-to-energy facilities are ripe with potential fire and explosion hazards and each year multiple producers have an event of some kind. Regulatory agencies, fire prevention associations and for-profit entities are racing to provide producers with state-of-the-art technologies to mitigate these risks to the greatest degree possible. This panel will allow producers to closely examine their own dust management and fire prevention programs and compare them to the best approaches the industry currently has to offer.

• Brian Edwards, Principal Engineer, Conversion Technology Inc.
  Addressing Combustible Dust Hazards
• Marcel Ruesink, Director Business Development, Minimax FSG
  How to Mitigate Fire Events?
• David Grandaw, Vice President Sales, IEP Technologies
  Managing Dust Explosion Risk within Biomass Operations
• Bill Mills, Dust Collection System Engineer, Benetech
  Dust Management/Fire & Explosion Risk Abatement

The biomass industry often hangs its hat on the ability to convert a wide range of biomass feedstocks to heat and power. That said, individual systems require feedstocks that achieve specific quality metrics. This panel will examine the simultaneous attention being paid to the impact that off-spec feedstock has on system performance and the development of specific feedstock standards. The panel will be rounded out with a look at how plant engineers are well served by beginning their design efforts with an eye on the feedstock characteristics they are most likely to encounter once up and running.

• Charlie Niebling, Partner, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions LLC
  National Wood Chip Heating Fuel Technical Quality Standard: An Update on Development
• Sean Dee, Senior Engineer, Exponent Inc.
  Feedstock Specifications: Interpretations of Off-Spec Feedstock
• Michael Oswald, President, Precision Energy Services
  The Importance of Designing the Biomass Power Plant to the Fuel
• Marcin Lewandowski, Director, Bioenergy Advisory Group, Ecostrat Inc.
  How to Manage Fuel Spec Issues: A Supplier's Perspective

While there is a growing roster of biogas projects in North America, sector proponents believe the rate of industry growth could be accelerated. Investor reluctance is often cited as a reason for this constrained growth due to a lack of familiarity amongst the investment community with anaerobic digestion technologies. Presentations on this panel will give attendees a playbook for instilling confidence with the lenders and equity providers so crucial to getting their project off the ground. The strategic use of off-take agreements, O&M contracts and independent engineering reviews will be featured.

• Beth Anne Clark, Manager Eastern U.S. Project Development, Blue Sphere Corporation
  Financing Biogas Projects
• Josh Dale, VP Project Finance, Rabobank
  Project Financing 101 and How to Make an AD Project Financeable
• Joel Vyduna, Manager, Luminate LLC
  Biogas Project Finance: Navigating the Due Diligence Process
• Brett Hogarth, Head of Business Development, Ecostrat Inc.
  Addressing Feedstock Availability and Price Risk

A compelling argument continues to be made that the contribution of biomass to fuel and chemical markets would be accelerated by perfecting the production of intermediate materials, often referred to as bio-crude. It is argued that this would allow existing refining assets to be utilized to manufacture the broad spectrum of products currently derived from fossil-based crude lowering the total cost of investment the biofuels industry would have to reap some of the financial rewards those markets yield. Presentations on this panel will not only make a strong argument for the approach, but highlight the latest research on process approaches like pyrolysis and their ability to deliver these flexible intermediates.

• Ted Aulich, Principal Process Chemist, EERC Energy & Environmental Research Center
  Renewable Crude Pathway to Commercial Biofuels/Chemicals
• Roger Ruan, Professor & Director, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota
  Microwave Assisted Fast Catalytic Pyrolysis and Gasification of Solid Wastes for Energy, Chemicals and Materials Production
• Ezra Bar-Ziv, Director Business Development, EB Clean Energy Ltd. – Boardman
  Enhanced Bio-Oil for Power Applications
• Lei Zhu, Research Associate Biofuels/Biomass, Washington State University
  Development of Microwave Pyrolysis Biochar as Carbon Catalysts for High Value Chemicals and Hydrocarbons

The global wood pellet market has doubled in the last five years. While doubling again in the next half-decade seems unlikely, most observers expect to see double digit year-over-year growth for the next several years at least. This panel is a must for producers and industry participants looking for a deep dive into the market’s biggest buyers, those countries where near term growth is expected to come from and those countries the industry believe could fuel the industry’s next big growth spurt.

• Richard Vlosky, Director & Professor, Louisiana Forest Products Center
  An Overview of Wood-based Energy in North America with a Focus on Pellets
• William Strauss, President, FutureMetrics
  New Markets for Industrial Wood Pellets: Japan, Canada, and the U.S.
• Seth Walker, Senior Economist, Timber and Bioenergy, RISI
  Global Pellet Market Update
• Preben Messerschmidt, Project Director, Ramboll
  Lessons from Avedore: Readying Fossil Fuel Power Generation Assets to Use Biomass Inputs

The biomass power and thermal segment advances and grows on a project by project basis. Each successful deployment serves as a proof of concept to other municipalities, universities or industrial sites considering a transition to biomass. Presenters in this panel will demonstrate to attendees how biomass has successfully been deployed to deliver reliable heat and power loads and the lessons that have been gleaned along the way.

• Jeff Guillemette, Biomass Fuel Manager, Ever-Green Energy LLC
  Success with Biomass CHP in Saint Paul
• Exor Montes, Industrial Steam Power, Director of Business Development, Siemens Energy Inc.
  Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Solutions Using Biomass Fuels: Case Studies of Industrial Applications
• Erin Hazen, Renewable Energy Business Development Manager, University of Iowa
  University of Iowa: Ramping Up on Biomass
• Ilaria Peretti, Sales & Business Development Manager NA, Turboden S.r.l.
  First and Successful ORC in Pellet Industries

For biogas operations to thrive, adherence to relatively tight operational parameters must be maintained. This panel will help attendees better understand the technologies available to them to give their operation the best chance to achieve and maintain desired output levels. Plant operators currently overwhelmed by a flood of disjointed information at their facility will appreciate the strong emphasis placed on the efficient collection and analysis of operational data.

• Allan Evora, President, Affinity Energy
  Smart Control Systems: Maximize Plant ROI and Support Preventative Maintenance
• Ravi Jethra, Program Manager Renewable Power, Endress + Hauser
  Improved Monitoring of Landfill Biogas for Fiscal Purposes
• Frank DeOrio, Sr. Technical Manager, O'Brien & Gere
  Anaerobic Treatment for Industrial Wastewater: Critical Factors for a Successful Start-Up and Operation
• Brian Meek, Director of Plant Operations, Avant Energy Inc.
  Simplifying the Complex Operations of Biogas Plants

The trajectory of corn utilization was altered, perhaps forever with the advent of the ethanol industry. As first generation biofuels assets were built in the heart of corn country, the natural progression of continued innovation in fuel and chemical production from other fractions of the corn kernel and plant is not surprising. This panel will feature presentations on technologies that are converting everything from corn kernel fiber to stover into fuel commodities, high value chemicals and new feed products.

• Mark Yancey, VP Project Development, D3MAX
  D3MAX Project Update
• Raghu Nandan Gurram, Process Development Scientist, American Science and Technology
  Cellulosic Ethanol from Corn Fiber Using Organosolv Processing
• Murray McLaughlin, Advisor, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada
  Corn Stover to Sugars to High Value Chemicals
• Glenn Farris, Marketing Manager Biomass, AGCO Corporation
  A New and Innovative Approach for Two OEMs for Supplying Feedstock to a Project

Increasing global demand for wood pellets has driven facilities to become bigger, handle more inbound material and log more up-time hours. For some operations within their plant, producers have kept pace with these increased demands while in others they have not and as a result have left profits on the table. This panel features presentations about technologies across the pellet production platform including material handling, prolonging wear part lifetimes and delivering both heat and power to the plant that once deployed promise to position producers to get the most out of their facilities.

• Dane Floyd, Founder & President, Biomass Engineering & Equipment
  Today’s Pellet Plant Won't Run on Yesterday’s Conveyors
• Holger Streetz, International Operations Manager, Bathan AG
  Update on Maintenance Best Practices from Europe and Industry 4.0 in Pelletizing
• Jonas Berghel, Associate Professor, Karlstad University
  The Amount of Dust and Rejects as well as the Electricity Consumption during Production Decreases with the Use of Appropriate Additives
• Francis Sharron, President, SolaGen Incorporated
  First Biomass Fired ORC Plant in the U.S. is Brought Online

The trajectory of emissions control points to increasingly restrictive limits on criteria pollutants and plant operators are bound to seek out and deploy the most effective control technologies. Biomass facilities have a unique challenge to confront because of the variable feedstocks they often bring into their operation. Attendees can expect a thorough investigation into the ways that cyclones and selective non-catalytic reduction systems can be deployed to control particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen respectively.

• Martha Watson, Business Development Director, Advanced Cyclone Systems
  New “Agglomerating” High Efficiency “MK” Cyclones to Comply with Emission Levels of 0.07 lb/MMBTU in Biomass Boilers
• Tom Wassel, P.E., Air Techniques, Inc./ReVenture Park
  Control of NOx Emissions in Process Equipment
• John Boyle, Senior Director, Technology Development, Fuel Tech Inc.
  Advanced SNCR NOx Reduction Experience on Large Utility Biomass
• Jo Ann Pacinelli, President, Ecospray Technologies S.r.l.
  A Novel Method of Reducing SNCR Operating Costs

Rich in the close examination of existing digesters this panel will provide attendees an opportunity to compare and contrast various digester designs and their operating results. Various biogas deployments will be examined including digesters installed at WWTPs, operating dairies and a college campus. Presenters will help attendees understand how each project’s unique requirements impacted overall systems design and attention will also be paid to designing safety into AD systems before they are built.

• Hisham Hafez, Industrial WW Management Specialist, Greenfield Specialty Alcohols Inc – Chatham
  GFSA High Rate Two Stage Anaerobic Digestion (GFSA-HRTSAD) Technology
• Daniel Wagner, Sr. Technical Manager, O'Brien & Gere
  Anaerobic Treatment Processes for Dairy Process Wastewater: Comparison of Reactor Configuration and Treatment Performance at Two Working Plants
• Steve Brunner, Project Manager, Harris Group Inc.
  Process Safety Challenges Presented by Biogas Facilities and the Importance of a HAZOP
• Matt Julius, Professor of Biology, St. Cloud State University
  A University Biogas and Algal Biomass Production Center for Education and New Revenue

Learning that a process design doesn’t meet yield requirements once a facility is built can cripple and potentially doom a bioenergy project forever. Developers are wise to exhaust all of the resources available to them to validate their design and process approach. This panel features presentations about both pilot-scale testing facilities and powerful computer modeling that can reveal design flaws long before capital is spent in construction. Time will also be spent discussing how these efforts can be used to bolster investor confidence and accelerate capitalization efforts.

• Peter Flippo, Business Development Director, Bioprocess Pilot Facility
  Piloting / Scaling Up as Key Enabling Technology: Explanation and Showcases
• Ali Manesh, President, American Science and Technology
  Pre-Commercialization Lignocellulosic Biorefinery Pilot Plant Update
• Tiffany Trottman, Business Development Manager, Nelson Engineering Inc.
  Design and Construction Tools to Benefit Your Capital Projects

The presentations in this panel are evenly split between managing humidity and exhaust gases at pellet production facilities. They are topically similar only in the sense that a failure to understand the implications of mismanaging either of them will lead to reduced efficiency and higher overall energy costs. Attendees will likely be surprised by how much these solutions approaches are able to move the needle with regard to plant performance while also delivering real reductions in O&M expenditures.

• Rodney Pennington, VP of Key Accounts, NESTEC Inc.
  Zero Fuel Operation: Pellet Plant Air Emission Control RTO/RCO
Additional Speakers TBA

While limited to a small number of individual projects throughout the world, the introduction of biomass in co-firing or repowering projects has had a massive impact on the industry in the last half decade. The repowering of just half of the capacity at the Drax Power Station alone has created millions of tons of biomass demand. Feedstock producers and technology developers alike have expanded their understanding of how to effectively source, move and combust biomass at scale to make power. This panel will provide attendees with an understanding of the obstacles the industry has already overcome and the challenges still in front of it.

• Bryce Koprucki, Control Systems Engineer, Novaspect
  Co-Firing Control and Interlocks
• Sasha Mackler, Director, U.S. Market Development & Government Affairs, Enviva LP
  Biomass for Power: Value Proposition, Opportunities, and Challenges from the Perspective of the Largest Feedstock Supplier
• Jim Easterly, Biomass Project Manager, Black & Veatch Corp.
  Success Factors and Lessons Learned for International Biopower Projects
• Luther Raatikka, Senior Consulting Engineer, Mechanical, Zachry Engineering Corporation
  Technical, Environmental and Economic Considerations Associated with Biomass Co-Firing

Swedish biogas innovators have built an impressive body of knowledge in biogas production and use and are ready to export their technology and experience to the rest of the world. Attendees can expect a specific focus on the deployment of biogas operations in agricultural settings both as a means of controlling phosphorous and adding an additional revenue stream to farm operations. The panel will be moderated by Amanda Bilek of the Great Plains Institute and attention will be paid to the ways in which country-to-state technology transfers can accelerate the adoption of novel biogas innovations.

• Anders Wistrom, CEO, Centriair USA Ltd.
  Odor Control for Organic Waste Transport and Processing
• Pernilla Holgersson, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden
  Benchmarking the Biogas Value Chain in Sweden and Minnesota
• Maria Hammar,  Department Manager, Hifab AB
  Biogas as Business Development for Farmers
• Jan Molin, CEO, Puregas Solutions AB
  Farm Produced Upgraded Biogas Injected into Gas Grid with Nutrient Extracted

There is broad consensus that future growth in the biomass sector is dependent upon increasing the value it derives from the impact it can have on carbon reduction efforts. As a result, efforts to better understand, measure and further lower the carbon intensity of biomass-to-energy systems have ramped up. This panel will explore how the industry is working to expand upon its low-carbon value proposition to win an even greater share of the energy market.

• Brendan Jordan, Vice President, Great Plains Institute
  Lowering Ethanol Carbon Intensity through Carbon Capture and Storage
• Tim Rooney, Project Manager, Antares Group Incorporated
  Increasing Biogenic Carbon Sequestration Benefits of Biomass Supply Systems
• Jamie Stephen, Managing Director, TorchLight Bioresources
  Can Biomass Play a Role in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Canada's Oil Sands?
• Alain Castro, CEO, Ener-Core Inc.
  Ener-Core and Dresser-Rand/Siemens Solution for Using Low-Quality Industrial Waste Gases as a Low-Cost Fuel for Cogeneration Plants

The efforts to bring wood pellets upgraded via torrefaction or steam explosion into commercial reality are propelled by a strong interest in arriving at a densified biomass product that can be substituted for coal with no storage and handling modifications and without giving up precious energy density. Proponents of these technologies are confident that once perfected more instances of biomass repowering are sure to follow. This panel will offer attendees a snapshot of the progress that’s been made to perfect these production processes and the obstacles yet to be overcome.

• Ezra Bar-Ziv, Professor, EB Clean Energy Ltd. - Boardman
  Safety Considerations in Biomass Torrefaction
• Marin Dujmovic, Graduate Student, Lakehead University
  Supply Chain Management of Advanced Wood Pellets: Storage and Real Time Field Characterization
• Michael Wild, Principal, International Biomass Torrefaction Council
  Torrefaction: Status of Technology, Experience in Logistics
• Wilson Lam, Process Engineer, KTC Industrial Engineering Ltd.
  Process Design and Dynamic Simulation of Biocoal Production via Torrefaction

The heart of any biomass power or thermal operation is the facility’s boiler. Boiler performance falls off as operational hours accrue and regular maintenance is a fact of life in biomass heat and power facilities. This panel features presentations on the best approaches to not only clean their boilers but also significantly prolong its useable life. Attention will also be given to methods that reduce the rate of deposition within the boiler.

• Scott Poeppel, Vice President, American Cladding Technologies Inc.
  Advances in Laser Metal Deposition for Maximizing Boiler Performance
• Mark Holt, Senior Engineer, Great River Energy
  Improved Cleaning and Reduced Maintenance in Retrofitted Waste to Energy Boilers
• Ian Saratovsky, Director, Chemical Product Management, Fuel Tech Inc.
  Minimizing Boiler Deposits with Advanced CFD Modeling and Chemical Treatment for Biomass Fuels
• Joe Estrada, Regional Manager, Combustion Technologies Corporation
  Boiler Optimization and MATS Compliance Testing using Delta CO/O2/NO Extractive Monitoring Systems

Once built and commissioned the next challenge for the operators of biogas facilities is to create conditions where their digester can thrive. The relative health of the microorganisms living inside the reactor and biogas output are tightly correlated. Presentations in this panel will look at best management practices like the use of enzymes and bacterial additives to boost biogas output as well as system designs that lead to increased generation while also reducing material retention times within the reactor.

• Will Charlton, President, Digester Doc
  Using Biological and Chemical Sciences to Optimize Your Methane Production in Your Co-Digestion Project/Facility
• Aleksandr Smotritckii, Co-Founder, Bioenergy LLC
  Multi-Staged Substrate Pretreatment Approach to the Increased Biogas Production
• Paul Greene, Client Services, CDM Smith
  Anaerobic Digestion Facility Design Best Practices to Maximize Throughput and Optimize Efficiency
• Bernard Sheff, Chairman, American Biogas Council / VP Biogas Engineering, ES Engineering Services LLC
  Surefire Ways to Kill a Digester: Lessons from 33 Years of Challenging Projects and Places

The biomass industry has long coveted the promise of the higher profit margins delivered by specialty chemical and fuel markets. It is widely understood that higher margins are not assured, but the higher market price for these fuels and chemicals can ease the strain on the financial models of technologies that are still maturing and in need of the refinement that only commercial scale production can inform.

• Rakesh Govind, President, PRD Tech Inc.
  Systematic Generation of Reaction Pathways for Manufacturing Bulk Industrial Chemicals from Carbon-Neutral Feedstocks
• Timothy Staub, Global VP Business Development, Green Biologics Inc.
  Green Chemistry: Performance as a Differentiator
• Paul de Wild, Research Scientist, Biomass & Energy Efficiency, Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands
  Biorecover: Biomass Residues Conversion & Valorisation for an Economic Refinery

• Gerard Ostheimer, Global Lead for Sustainable Bioenergy, United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL)
  Bioenergy for Sustainable Development
• Cora Dickson, Renewable Energy Specialist, U.S. Department of Commerce
  International Trade Administration Resources for Biomass Exporters
• Raul Flores, Private Enterprise Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development
  Power Africa: A USG-led Partnership

To deliver desired financial results any energy generation facility must remain operational for the targeted lifetime of the project while keeping within its predetermined O&M budget. Downtime and unexpected part failure put the facility’s success in jeopardy. This panel features presentations that look at specific components in a plant or moments in a plant’s life cycle that could lead to premature failure or diminished efficiency and the technologies and approaches available to mitigate that risk.

• Mark Holt, Senior Engineer, Great River Energy
  Lifetime Extension of Superheater Pendants and Economic Analysis of Material Usage
• Jeff Hayes, Product Manager, Beijer Electronics
  Human Machine Interfaces Deployments for Harsh Biomass Production Environments: Why, Where and How
• Ravi Jethra, Program Manager Renewable Power, Endress + Hauser
  Reducing Commissioning Times in Biomass Power Plants with Smart Process Instrumentation
• Craig Truempi, Reliability Program Director, Novaspect
  How and Why to Start a Reliability Program

The ability to generate saleable energy from unwanted waste streams yields a broad array of potential projects for anaerobic digesters. Any organic material can be digested, however the relative success of any project hinges on the sophistication of both the system’s design and its operators. Presenters in this panel hail from vastly different biogas operations and will allow attendees to see how the same basic process can be infinitely adapted to suit nearly any application.

• Jagannadh Satyavolu, Theme Leader Biomass & Biofuels, Conn Center, University of Louisville
  In-Situ Prevention of Hydrogen Sulfide Formation during Biogas Production
• Ken Smith, Principal & Owner, KRSmith & Associates LLC
  Micro-Anaerobic Digestion and CHP from Food Waste
• Dagoberto Calamateo , Associate Mechanical Engineer, SMUD Sacramento Municipal Utility District
  Dairy Power Program in SMUD Service Territory

The biogas industry’s recent momentum is being driven by the success project developers are having upgrading produced biogas for a broad spectrum of applications. Be it upgrading for CNG vehicle markets, burning it in retrofitted or converted industrial boilers or using it to satisfy state RPS requirements, developers are matching potential biogas production sites with proven technologies to satisfy profitable marketplace opportunities with ever greater efficiency. This panel will make a compelling argument that an era of rapid expansion in the industry is fast approaching.

• Rudy Garcia, Vice President Sales, Verdek
  BioGas to Vehicle Fuel: Overcoming the Obstacles
• Jeroen Driessen, Sales Manager Engineered Solutions, Pentair
  Renewable Green Energy Source from Biogas to Biomethane and Green CO2
• Joseph Curro, Principal Engineer, CDM Smith
  Converting Industrial Burners to Landfill Gas Firing

Wisconsin Mini Grilled Cheese, Mini Pulled Pork Sandwiches on Hawaiian Rolls, Swedish Meatballs Grilled Chicken Walnut Salad in Pastry Shell w/ Apricot Glaze, Bruschetta w/ Olive Tapenade & Roasted Red Peppers, Beer & Wine, Soda