Twenty Seventh Symposium On Biotechnology For Fuels And Chemicals

industry, and 22% were from government. A total of oral presentations (including Special Topic presentations) and 329 poster presentations were delivered. The high number of poster submissions required splitting the poster session into two evening sessions. (Conference details are posted at http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/biotech_symposium/.) Almost 35% of the attendees were international, showing the strong and building worldwide interest in this area. Nations represented included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Ki- dom, and Venezuela, as well as the United States. One of the focus areas for bioconversion of renewable resources into fuels is conversion of lignocellulose into sugars and the conversion of s- ars into fuels and other products. This focus is continuing to expand toward the more encompassing concept of the integrated multiproduct biorefinery--where the production of multiple fuel, chemical, and energy products occurs at one site using a combination of biochemical and ther- chemical conversion technologies. The biorefinery concept continues to grow as a unifying framework and vision, and the biorefinery theme f- tured prominently in many talks and presentations. However, another emerging theme was the importance of examining and optimizing the entire biorefining process rather than just its bioconversion-related elements.

State-of-the-art research by leading experts ## Advanced feedstock production and processing ## Enzyme and microbial biocatalysis ## Bioprocess research and development ## Commercialization of biobased products.

The increased attendance required concurrent sessions for the 48 oral presentations and 190 submitted posters (for more details see Website: www.ct.ornl.gov/symposium). Attendees came from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Ven ezuela, as well as from the United States. This international perspective was continued in a Special Topic Ses sion sponsored by the International Energy Agency (lEA) Bioenergy Pro gram on Biofuels and chaired by Jack Saddler and David Gregg from the University of British Columbia. Several of the 10 member countries in this network are approaching Demonstrations of the Biomass-to-Ethanol pro cess and have a range of more fundamental projects that look at various aspects of pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, and lignin utilization. Presenters from several of the participating countries described their country's biomass-to-ethanol projects, and differential factors such as the type of biomass available, the maturity of the wood or agricultural processing industry, and the willingness of government to bear the risk/ cost of development and demonstration.

Lysts using enzyme, microbial, and plantbiochemistriesand genetic engi neeringand "ProcessingResearch" describedtheconversionofplantcom ponentsviaintegrationofmicrobiology, biochemistry, andchemistrywith engineering, separations, and hybrid systems. The "Enzymatic Processes and Enzyme Production" session focused on the manufacture and use of enzymes. The"IndustrialChemicals"sessionemphasizedrecentdevelop mentsintheintegratedproductionandscale-upofchemicalsfrombiologi cal rather than petrochemical routes. Special interest was on separation methods and their integrationintonew fermentation orhybrid processes. 35 oral presentations, a roundtable The technical program consisted of forum, two special topic discussions, and a poster session of 135 posters. Wecontinuedasuccessfulinformalroundtableserieswith"Bioenergy and Bioproducts: Forum on Recent Government Initiatives," which dis cussedthePresident'sExecutiveOrder, the BioenergyInitiative, the Tech nology Roadmap for Renewables Vision 2020, and other thrusts. These eventscontinuethe strongindustrial focus and activeindustrialparticipa tionintheorganizingcommittee. Thishasbecomeverypopularbecauseit allows industrialand government participants to speakmore openly. AspecialTopicsDiscussionGroupwasheldon"C0 Sequestration," 2 ledby James W. Lee. Another onwas held on "Commercializationof Bio mass-to-Ethanol" where chairs Jack N. Saddler and David J. Gregg made thegoal ofthisworkshop to showparticipantsthatweare close to demon stratingthe technicalviability ofanintegratedbiomass-to-ethanolprocess and that progressive technical advances and policy decisions will likely greatly enhance the economic attractiveness of the process.

State-of-the-art research by leading experts Advanced feedstock production and processing Enzyme and microbial biocatalysis Bioprocess research and development Commercialization of biobased products.

153 posters. While plant biotechnology for enzyme production and designer biomass merged as "hot topics" throughout the Symposium, the preface for each session is included in the introductions. Special topic discussions were led on "Brazilian Bioethanol Progress" by Gisella Zanin, State University of Maringa, Brazil, and on "Nontradi tional Bioprocessing" by Gene Petersen, National Renewable Energy Labo ratory, Golden, CO. A tour of the Colorado Bioprocessing Center, a "state of the art" con tract research facility at Colorado State University highlighted the process development and scale-up activities ongoing with several industrial clients. The 1999 Charles D. Scott Award for Distinguished Contributions in the field of Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals was presented to Dr. Charles E. Wyman, Dartmouth College professor, Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire. This award is named in honor of Dr. Charles D. Scott, the founder of this Symposium and its chair for the first ten years.

Today, much research and development for advanced biotechnology is directed toward biomedical applications; however, exciting new concepts for bioprocessing continue to be developed for fuel and chemical production.

In the Seventeenth Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals, leading researchers from academia, industry, and government present state-of-the-art papers on how bioengineering can be used to produce fuels and chemicals competitively. This year's program covered topics in thermal, chemical, and biological processing; applied biological processing; bioprocessing research; process economics and commercialization; and environmental biotechnology. The ideas and techniques described will play an important role in developing new biological processes for producing fuels and chemicals on a large scale, and in reducing pollution, waste disposal problems, and the potential for global climate change.