The end of 2014 delivered two powerful shocks to the transportation fuels sector. First, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refused to decrease production to offset reduced demand, leading to the lowest oil prices in years. Then, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would finish the year without setting annual federal renewable fuels volume requirements for gas and diesel distributors.
Those burning energy issues and more were hot topics at the annual National Biodiesel Conference Expo which took place January 19 - 22 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. This was the 12th straight year NBB produced the premier U.S. biodiesel event, which featured demonstrations and discussions among thousands of biodiesel producers, distributors, and enthusiasts.
Full coverage can be found on the official blog.
Next Generation Scientists For Biodiesel
The Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel program continues to grow and there were 30 student scientists represented at this year's conference. Here are the Co-Chairs of the program James Anderson, Southern Illinois University, a PhD student in Agricultural Science; Katie Heil, University of Colorado - Boulder, an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering; Mike Morgan, Utah State University, an undergraduate in Biochemistry and Dan Browne, a graduate research assistant in the Dept. of Biochemistry Biophysics at Texas AM University.
I asked them to each describe the type of work they're doing related to biodiesel and then tell me what coming to the conference has meant to them.
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Leadership Discussion
This year's conference featured a discussion with industry CEOs led by Joe Jobe. On the panel were Dan Oh, REG; Gene Gebolys, World Energy; and Paul Soanes, Renewable Biofuels.
The conference has become very focused on the business of the industry and as you wander around the convention center you'll see small groups of people having serious business discussions.
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