Roy, Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), currently manages advanced programs business area that focus on addressing our Nation's security. With energy on the forefront of our Nation's security needs, SAIC is working with DARPA to develop commercial scale processes to grow and process algae to liquid fuel for today’s aircraft – with a focus on sustainability.
Dr. Jonathan Trent is a member of Silicom Ventures advisory board. Dr.
Trent is a Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. After
receiving his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography at Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, Dr. Trent spent six years in Europe at the Max Planck
Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, the University of Copenhagen in
Denmark, and the University of Paris at Orsay in France. He returned to
the U.S.A. to work at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine at Yale
Medical School for two years before establishing a biotechnology group
Biomass derived from plants or animal waste is a renewable source of energy. Liquid biofuels for transportation such as biodiesel, methanol, or ethanol can be produced from biomass. Heat can be obtained by reprocessing organic waste. There are disputes concerning the potential for biomass to replace petroleum and other fossil fuels as a sustainable source of energy and also about the environmental impacts of energy from biomass.
Changing World Technologies, Inc. (CWT) is a company that has developed a technology and business which converts a variety of organic wastes into oil. The patented Thermal Conversion Process (TCP) breaks down waste by using water, heat and pressure to produce a Renewable Diesel fuel and other valuable co-products. The technology not only produces a clean-burning fuel, it also promises to alleviate dependence on landfills and incinerators. It contributes to global objectives of moving to a more sustainable environment and reduces dependency on fossil energy.
Farmers are expected to plant 15 percent more corn this year than last in response to increased demand from ethanol production. As ethanol production booms questions are abound.
* How many bushels of corn are equal to the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil? * How much is the government subsidizing the industry? * What do the coproducts of ethanol add to the economy? * What will increasing costs of corn do to the cost of ethanol?
Biofuel subsidies continue to change at a very fast rate and do little to constrain the enormous environmental issues that arise when so much land and water are used to produce fuel. Glenn Prickett, Senior Vice President for Business and U.S. Government Relations at Conservation International, addressed these issues and more at our first seminar of the new year.
