In so many ways plant laboratories are the eyes and ears of what is happening within an ethanol plant. The industry’s most successful plant teams have learned that the best use of lab assets may well be to guide new production approach concepts. Presentations in this panel will highlight the latest advancements in using labs to cost effectively predict the outcome of small and large changes in a facility’s production approach, putting plant labs at the front of the decision making process for the facilities they serve.

• Don Cannon, QA/QC Lead, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Validating a Laboratory Method for Simulating Selective Grind Technology Enhancements
• TaNeal Boer, Technical Science Director, Bion Companies
  Plant Managers Guide to Laboratory Data: How do I Interpret Data Coming from the Lab, and What Questions do I ask when I don’t like the Result?
• Yanhong Zhang, Director of Research, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center
  Accurate Quantitation of the Biochemical Process from Starch to Ethanol
• Scott Segro, Technical Applications Specialist 3, Metrohm USA
  Importance and Advantages of Updating Acidity in Ethanol Titrations

Operating a state-of-the-art ethanol production plant requires a sharp management team leading a nimble and capable production team. Finding and keeping a skilled team is tantamount to succeed and keep pace with an increasingly innovative industry. This panel will help producers think about how they can leverage this innovative spirit to inspire a desire for continuous improvement via high quality training throughout their production team. These presentations will take it one step further by highlighting how a forward-looking training environment might well be their best retention strategy.

• Bridgett Morales, Executive VP, Bloc Environmental Solutions
  Making it Personal: Effectively Engaging and Training the Workforce
• Ron Faciane, Director, GP Strategies Corporation
  Technical Training to Meet the Challenges of Generational Workforce
• Jeremy Javers, Director of Technology Development, ICM Inc.
  Implementation of the Vision of Dry Grind Corn Biorefining: Ethanol and Beyond

While corn oil capture is largely ubiquitous across the industry’s production fleet, variability still exists in the percentage of available oil each plant captures. This panel will look closely at this variability, the likely reasons for the disparity within the industry and the leading strategies to help producers increase their own rates of capture. Anchored by a presentation that promises to illuminate the key performance indicators of successful oil capture, attendees will walk away from this session armed with a punch list of options to increase their own corn oil revenues.

• Jennifer Aurandt-Pilgrim, Director of Technical Services, Trucent
  Bringing Biochemical Understanding to Corn Oil Extraction
• Jason Marquis, COO, Marquis Energy LLC
  Thin Stillage Clarification with Protein Extraction
• Bob Fesser, Industry Sales Manager, Hydro-Thermal Corporation
  Good for Today, Great for Tomorrow: Plant Optimization for Higher Yields and Greater Outputs with Industry Margin Stability

Keeping plant evaporators clear of organic and inorganic fouling is a crucial maintenance step that costs producers significant time and money. Not surprisingly this has catalyzed innovation aimed at reducing the frequency of evaporator cleaning and its overall cost. Featured in this panel are a variety of approaches including the use of chemical treatments to reduce mineralized deposits, centrifuges to reduce the total solids in stillage before it hits the evaporators and the use of robotic cleaning.

• Jeff Prochaska, Biofuels Industry Technical Consultant, Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company
  Evaporator Considerations with Centrate Suspended Solids Removal
• Dan Walter, Senior Regional Engineering Leader, SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions
  Evaporation Load Performance: A Quick, Low-Cost and Effective Measurement Process
• Terry Gromes, Jr., Automation Specialist, Terydon Inc.
  The Productivity of Evaporator Cleaning through Automation

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of corn fiber-to-ethanol technologies is how well the prospect of this cellulosic pathway interconnects with the industries broader corn fractionation ambitions. That producers must continue to find ways to isolate and add greater value to each component of inbound corn is clear and the time for widespread fiber capture and conversion to cellulosic ethanol is now. This panel features technology updates from the frontrunners in the race to bring online and rapidly expand the sector’s fiber-to-ethanol output.

• John Kwik, Principal, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Fiber for Cellulosic Ethanol from a Dry Mill
• Mark Yancey, Chief Technology Officer, D3MAX LLC
  Margin Improvement for Ethanol Plants with D3MAX
• James Kacmar, Director of Engineering & Operations, Edeniq Inc.
  Cellulosic Ethanol: A Low Carbon Intensity Innovation to Improve Your Plant’s Profitability
• Brandon Emme, Principal Scientist, Cellulose Team Lead, ICM Inc.
  Gen 1.5 Corn Fiber Processing as a Method for High Value Product Diversification
• Asif Malik, COO, Quad County Corn Processors
  Ethanol Plant Commercial Experience of Product Diversification through Cellerate® Corn Kernel Fiber Processing

A lab’s ability to give production teams the confidence to heed the results of the trials performed within it correlate tightly with the team’s confidence in the accuracy of its instruments. Presenters in this session will walk attendees through the critical process of confirming their instruments are correctly calibrated, bolstering the team’s confidence in the conclusions they illuminate. Time will be spent discussing pH probes, solids analyzers and density meters, HPLC, NIR and level indicators.

• Daniel Biggerstaff, Technical Director, Organics, Enertech Solutions Inc. / o2si smart solutions LLC
  What Does ISO 17034 Accreditation of Reference Materials Mean for Your Quality Control Laboratory?
• Tera Stoughtenger, Technical Services Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Adding Value to Your Plant with Proper Calibration and Upkeep of Plant and Laboratory Equipment
• Andrew Hawkins, Director of Laboratory Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Are Your Lab Measurements Accurate? Reducing Error in Your Data
• Barry McCleary, CEO, Megazyme
  Rapid, Specific and User-Friendly Enzymatic Assays to Support Operations, Quality and Research in the Biofuel Industry

The emergence of more and more foreign ethanol customers only adds layers to an already complex fuel regulation and certification environment for the industry and its producers. This panel provides a nice mix of discussions on specific topics like sulfate measurement along with broader questions like a round-up of the growing list of certification and standards organizations ethanol producers need to be up to speed on. A talk about the EPA’s fuel-streamlining effort and how it impacts ethanol producers rounds out a content-packed fuel standards session.

• Kari Cook, Quality Manager, POET Biorefining - Alexandria
  Standards Organizations Important to Ethanol
• Kristy Moore, Principal, KMoore Consulting
  Certificates of Analysis: Test Methods, Specs Matter
• Jacki Fee, Technical Director of Biofuels, Cargill
  How to Control, Accurately Measure Sulfates
• Chris Bliley, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Growth Energy
  The Bliley Report: Regulatory Update Impacting Ethanol

While initially met with skepticism and concern, Low Carbon Fuel Standards like California’s are now regarded by many producers as an opportunity to differentiate an otherwise commodified fuel product. These programs and the rewards they offer producers who have successfully driven down the carbon intensity of their fuels do not come without compliance requirements. This panel will help producers better understand the validation and verification steps they’ll have to complete in 2020 and 2021, the verifiers they can engage to prepare and the momentum in other markets to adopt similar LCFS programs.

• Ashley Player, Senior Manager, Weaver
  LCFS Verification and Validation: What is coming in 2020?
• Kari Buttenhoff, Manager, Christianson PLLP
  Are LCFS Verifications on your Radar?
• Jamey Cline, Business Development, Christianson PLLP
  What the 45Q Federal Carbon Storage Tax Credit Means for Ethanol Manufacturers and the Industry
• Jacqueline Gerst, Energy Resources Manager, Battelle
  How do I Know if Carbon Storage is an Option for My Plant?

Those producers that commit to a dogged pursuit of incredibly high standards for plant cleaning and overall plant hygiene do so in the hopes of saving time and money by limiting the occurrence of bacterial infection within their plant. The talks in this panel explore the plant cleaning and products available to producers in great detail, while also attempting to quantify their potential in a language all members of a plant production team can appreciate, reduced operational costs and increased overall yield.

• Ben Sunderhaus, Senior Technical Account Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Infection and Hygiene Control: Providing Value through Industry Leading Technical Support
• Stephanie Gleason, Technical Service Leader-Grain Processing, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Plant Hygiene: A Review of Best Practices for Monitoring and Controlling Infections
• Jennifer Braun, Field Technical Manager, U.S. Water
  Alternatives for Traditional Cleaning Methods Utilized in Fuel Ethanol Production

In many ways, the cellulosic ethanol industry can advance only as fast as the development of the enzymes that will unlock the tightly bound lignocellulose and make it available to a waiting yeast population. This panel will allow attendees to catch up on the progress being made within some of the industry’s leading enzyme developments that will catapult ethanol production from cellulose streams into widespread commercial deployment. Attendees will walk away with a clear picture of how far enzymes have come and the pace of their ongoing refinement.

• Paul Klaassen, Technical Director, DSM Bio-based Products & Services
  High Yield Enzyme Solutions for Cellulosic Ethanol
• Jan Dines Knudsen, Fermentation Scientist, Terranol A/S
  Injecting New Life into Cellulosic Ethanol Production
• Kerry Hollands, Scientist II, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Advances in Enzyme-Expressing Yeast and Their Benefits for the Fuel Ethanol Industry

The economic rewards for even modest yield gains from improved yeasts has catalyzed the continuous work in strains optimized for ethanol production. This panel features presentations on a wide variety of strain traits including those that are enzyme expressing or are more tolerant of higher temperatures, pH or organic acid concentrations. The industry’s tight margin environment mandates that plant teams stay informed on the latest advancements in yeast strains and are prepared to capture those opportunities when they become available in the marketplace.

• Matt Richards, Director of Application Technology, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Advanced Yeasts: Continuing Innovation in Response to Producer Requirements
• Mickel Jansen, Senior Scientist Fermentation, DSM Bio-based Products & Services
  Same Corn, More Value: Industrially Proven Yeast Technology
• Ananda Nanjundaswamy, Assistant Professor, Alcorn State University
  Unraveling Yeast Transcriptomics: A Novel Strategy in Deciphering the Biochemical Basis for Biofuel Production
• Caroline Peres, Principal Scientist, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Combining Assets: A New GA-Producing, Low Side-Products, High Yield Yeast

By itself, California’s commitment to a Low Carbon Fuel Standard put driving down the carbon intensity of their plant on the radar of many plant management teams. The continued momentum for low carbon fuel markets in neighboring Oregon and British Columbia has only accelerated this interest. Savvy management teams know that reimagining plant energy requirements is an obvious place to begin. Presentations in this panel will get producers thinking about their power and heat requirements and the carbon-reduced options commercially available to meet them now.

• Ben Root, Process Engineer, Saola Energy LLC
  The Argument for Adding a Steam Let-Down Turbine to Take Advantage of LCFS Incentives
• Bernie Hoffman, CEO, TotalGen Services
  An Evolving Industry Picking Up Steam
• Jim Ramm, Director of Engineering, EcoEngineers
  On-site Energy Management
• Shrikant Rathi, General Manager, PRAJ Industries Limited
  Maximize Your Margins with Carbon Intensity Reduction of Your Ethanol Plants
• Bill Schafer, CEO, Energy Integration Inc.
  Supercharging the Fuel of the Future

The importance of a motivated team to an organization is so well agreed upon it has become cliché. Nevertheless, developing and maintaining an energized and positive work environment vexes many management teams. The presenters in this panel assert the key to avoiding the production-sapping impact of low motivation and employee turnover is to build a team that feels empowered to make critical decisions, inspired by managers who trust in their abilities and are allowed to share in the plant’s overall success.

• Janice Fairbairn, Marketing Manager, Wired Within
  Avoiding the Pitfalls of Leadership
• Nicole Sullivan, Consultant, Organizational Effectiveness, FCC Services Inc.
  Effective Hiring Practices
• Danielle McCormick, Principal, Talent Advisor, K-Coe Isom LLP
  The Power of a Cohesive Culture
• Esther Homandberg, Talent Optimization Manager, Bion Analytical
  Effective Communication: Who Needs It?

Clean-in-place approaches are widespread throughout the industry to control the build-up of organic and inorganic deposits throughout the production environment and inhibit bacterial outbreaks. This panel makes it clear that while the practice is widespread, there is plenty to indicate that the industry isn’t satisfied that the process has been perfected. Populated by talks that look closely at the alternative approaches that have shown early promise, the discussion promises to give maintenance teams some new CIP approaches to consider.

• Mark Altier, RD&E Program Leader, Ecolab Inc.
  Ecolab: Total Plant Cleaning and Sanitizing Programs, Partnerships, and Technologies
• Stephanie Schmidt, Plant Chemist & Process Analyst, Badger State Ethanol LLC
  Removing Caustic from Front-End CIPing: A Plant's Experience
• Michael Raab, Lead Technologist, Suez Water Technologies & Solutions
  Enhanced One Step CIP Solutions Approved for Animal Food
• Dennis Bayrock, Global Director Fermentation Research Lactrol, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Improper CIP Management and Persistent Bacterial Contaminations

Taken together the presentations that populate this panel articulate just how widely the advanced biofuels industry is casting its gaze with regard to feedstocks and conversion approaches. The panel kicks off with a look at glucose production at existing ethanol plants, but then leaves the established corn conversion complex behind to look at the cellulosic components of feedstocks like municipal solid waste (MSW) and the lignin fractions found in abundance within the world’s pulp, paper and forest products sector.

• Neal Jakel, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, Fluid Quip Technologies, LLC
  Industrial Glucose: Bridging the Biochemical Gap
• David McConnell, Vice President Business Development-NA, Enerkem Inc.
  From Trash to Advanced Biofuels: The Technology Behind the First-Ever Waste-to-Biofuels Facility
• Ed De Jong, VP of Development, Avantium Technologies
  Dawn Technology™: Superior Lignocellulosic Fractionation Technology for 2G Bioethanol
• Radhakrishnan Srinivasan, Founder, Weighty Corn LLC
  Fiber Separation from Corn Flour using Sieving and Air Classification: Its First Commercial Scale Implementation

Cultivating the perfect conditions inside of plant fermenters to maximize yeast propagation is a perpetual goal for ethanol plant teams, but one that comes with some expense. Periods of tight profit margins often drive plants to scrutinize the necessity of all expenditures, including those tied to increasing yield. The presentations in this panel will look to answer the hard questions about the cost benefits of antimicrobial inputs, process water cooling, yeast nutrients and added air into propagation. This panel promises an unvarnished look at the relative return on investment for the industry’s leading yeast health and fermentation enhancement strategies.

• Jenny Forbes, Vice President Products & Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Narrow Margins: Running Lean without Sacrificing Yield
• Ryan Brock, Technical Services Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Air to Yeast Props: Analyzing the Value and Cost of Adding Air into Propagation
• Celia Payen, Scientist II, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Does Your Yeast Have What It Takes? Combining Old and New Tricks to Deliver Robust Yeast to the Biofuel Industry
• Peter Krasucki, General Manager, FermAxiom
  Manufacturing of Optimal Yeast Inoculum for Ethanol Fermentation using HDYC Technology Platform
• Amanda Moser, Senior Scientist, Novozymes North America
  "Smart" Fermentation Achieved through Optimal Enzyme and Yeast Pairings

Bacterial infection is inevitable in ethanol production but peppered throughout the presentations in this panel are warnings of the risk to plant yields that comes along with passive acceptance of this reality. Instead, the presentations in this panel will remind producers of financial cost of even those infections producers might regard as routine or expected. The panel also makes room for presentations on both the responsible use of available antibiotics and the alternative treatment option afforded by hop cones.

• Stacey Campbell, Ethanol Technical Services Manager, BetaTec Hop Products Inc.
  A Natural Solution for Antimicrobials
• Cam Fowler, Senior Director Applied Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Yield Thieves: Understanding the Impact from Bacterial Contamination
• Jennifer Starner, Research Scientist, U.S. Water
  Investigating the Effectiveness of Antibiotic Combinations Utilized in Fuel Ethanol Production

This discussion will begin with a presentation that gives plant leadership teams a framework for making more of strategic planning meetings and retreats. The discussion then pivots and looks more specifically at the tools available to plant management teams to make decisions about new technology deployments and the oversight approaches that guarantee they get built on time and within budget. Teams that have felt paralyzed by capital investment at their facility will appreciate this multi-disciplined look at the best practices in strategizing, deciding and ultimately seeing a project through to commissioning.

• Connie Lindstrom, Senior Biofuels Analyst, Christianson PLLP
  Keys to Effective Strategic Planning for Directors and Executives
• Nick Lurty, Principal Consultant, n2 Solutions
  Strategic Innovation: Real Options Valuation Framework for Technology Readiness
• Douglas Rivers, Project Director, Lee Enterprises Consulting
  Strategic Due Diligence for New Technology Applications
• Tiffany Trottman, Business Development Manager, Nelson Baker Biotech
  Tools for Managing & Contracting Your Capital Projects

Coproduct revenues have often meant the difference between black or red ink on plant profit-and-loss statements. Their importance to producers cannot be overstated and it should come as no surprise that producers are eager to derive even more value from coproduct streams, including distillers grains. Attention will be given in this panel to the continuing efforts to innovate pathways that allow producers to diversify into higher value feed products, including high purity protein. The panel will also feature an exhaustive study conducted on the lack of antimicrobial residues in distillers grains taken from a broad swath of the ethanol fleet.

• Keith Jakel, Sales & Marketing Lead, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Planning for a Modular/Stepped Approach to Protein Production in an Ethanol Facility
• Fernando Boscariol, Engineering Superintendent, Dedini S/A Industrias De Base
  Corn Ethanol Production in Flexible Plants and Integration with Animal Protein Production
• Ryan Mass, Feed Business Manager, ICM Inc.
  A Method of Selecting New Animal Nutrition Technologies
• Dennis Bayrock, Global Director Fermentation Research Lactrol, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Risk Assessment of Antibiotic Residues in DDGS and Animal-Derived Foods

Performing maintenance on a predictable schedule is certainly preferable to managing through an unplanned maintenance event and unscheduled downtime. This panel is loaded with presentations that make this desired plant maintenance state more tangible and achievable for plant maintenance teams. The discussion begins with the economic argument for a predictive maintenance program, moves into a presentation about best practices in plant shutdowns and concludes with a look at harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to gain greater visibility into tomorrow’s maintenance needs.

• Paul Mordorski, Biofuels Sector Lead, Merjent Inc.
  Facility Maintenance + Environmental Compliance = Cost Savings
• Kristen Gordon, Director, Aftermarket Services, ICM Inc.
  Best Practices for a Successful Plant Shutdown
• Carson Merkwan, Business Development, Direct Automation LLC
  Artificial Intelligence and IIoT for Predictive Maintenance – for Managers, Tech’s and Engineers
• Doug Robey, Vice President, Maintenance Training & Reliability, GP Strategies
  Implementing a Living Reliability Program for Sustained Operational Excellence

While plant professionals understand stressed yeast populations curtail overall ethanol yield, operational discipline is required to establish and maintain the optimal fermentation environment. This panel will begin with a look at the use of a common shake flask and the new tools available to help producers leverage this simple piece of equipment for a better look at what is happening in their fermentation tanks. The discussion then moves on to quickly identifying when and why a fermenter may be in a stressed condition and concludes with a presentation on the best practices in nitrogen supplementation.

• Amanda Hildebrand, Scientist Grain Applications, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  A Comprehensive Approach to Fermentation Scale-Down
• Jayne Kalbfleisch, Technical Development Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Recognizing and Remediation of Stressed Fermentations
• Pedro Peña, Lab & R&D Director, CTE Global Inc.
  A Comprehensive Approach to Nitrogen Optimization for More Efficient Fermentation
• Patrick Mandulak, Product Application Scientist, Novozymes North America
  Utilizing Enzymatic and Operational Synergies to Access Difficult Starch and Maximize Ethanol Yield

The challenge for producers has now moved well beyond capturing crucial operational and financial data to making sense of it all and using effectively to guide their decision-making process. The first presentation will look at the value of configuring financial data in new ways so that human minds can see new things within it. The discussion then turns to a review of the tools available to plant teams to capture and analyze the sea of operational data that is so vast it can’t be considered without the aid of well-designed process control systems.

• Donna Funk, Principal, K-Coe Isom LLP
  How to Use the Data You Already Have to Make Different Decisions
• Hank Brittain, Director of Optimization & Advanced Control, OpX Control Inc.
  Plant-wide Advanced Control for Ethanol Plants in Your DCS
• Jonas Norinder, Process Automation Digitalization Manager, Siemens Industry Inc.
  Digitalization in the Ethanol Industry
• Evan Almberg, Analyst, HRST Inc.
  Using Plant Operating Data and Thermal Modeling to Assess HRSG and Boiler Performance

Plant professionals charged with keeping their plants in compliance with their permitted emissions limits will appreciate this panel’s two-pronged look at both monitoring and control. The discussion opens with a presentation that will help operators make sense of the testing options available to them and when to deploy each. The discussion will then move on to the leading technologies in VOC capture and destruction before concluding with a presentation on a plant confronted with an underperforming dust collection system that led to the development of a custom filter bag that shows great potential.

• Jordan Laster, Vice President Analytical Services, Alliance Source Testing
  Methods to Know: VOC Compliance
• John McDowell, Sales Engineer, EISENMANN Corporation
  Current Trends of Air Pollution Control in the Ethanol Market
• Zeke Babcock, Strategic Account Manager, Donaldson Torit
  Innovative Dust Collection: Do More with Less Using Advanced Filtration Technology

Producers have long known that they were delivering non-fermentable components of inbound corn into their fermenters. These components were captured later downstream, and the inefficiencies were tolerated in the process. Still, the concept of refining inbound corn in such a way that only the starch fraction was targeted for fermentation continues to hold great intrigue and promise. This panel features a presentation on the commercial scale deployment of a dry-fractionation approach as well as a biological approach to adding value to coproduct streams.

• Joe Fitzgerald, Founder, Shockwave LLC
  Commercializing New Dry-Fractionation Technology for the Bio-Conversion Industry
• Steve Hartig, Vice President of Technology Development, ICM Inc.
  ICM’s Vision for the Next Generation Biorefinery
• John Kwik, President, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Ethanol Plant to Biorefinery: Proven Diversification Today
• Jaclyn DeMartini, Scientist, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Maximizing Value from Every Corn Kernel

Ethanol plants move millions of gallons of flowable material through their process each year, relying on dozens of pumps deployed throughout the plant to do the work. The vital nature of the function they perform paired with the conditions into which they are typically deployed requires that maintenance teams systematically anticipate and plan for their refurbishment or replacement. Presenters in this panel will go beyond the normal fare of pump maintenance programs and urge attendees to see pumps as a promising pathway to increasing overall plant efficiency while reducing key input expenses.

• Paul Yaple, Regional Manager, A.R. Wilfley & Sons Inc.
  Special Duplex Stainless Steel Pumps Improved Wear and Corrosion Increasing Five to Six Fold Service Life in Ethanol Operations
• Brett Burbage, Regional Technical Manager, ProFlow Pumping Solutions
  Eliminating Leaks When Pumping Your Valuable Ethanol
• Jared Gabel, Dosing & Disinfection Product Manager, Grundfos Pumps Corporation
  The Advantages of Stepper Motor Design in Chemical Feed Pumps

This panel will outline the growing list of options available to producers to remove water from their process at two important waypoints: after distillation and from distiller’s grains streams. Dehydration is a process bottleneck which has inspired its fair share of innovation and process rethinking. This panel allows producers to perform a side-by-side analysis of molecular sieves, emerging membrane technologies and centrifuges and determine whether their own facility is due for an improved, more efficient dehydration approach.

• Mark Binns, Technical Business Director, Hengye Inc.
  Analytical Approach to Sieve Bed Cycle Times to Maximize Performance While Protecting the Sieve Beads and Equipment
• Sean Tierney, North American Business Manager, Elgin Separation Solutions
  Centrifuge Dewatering, Operations and Maintenance
• Mike Garza, Senior Manager, Process Engineering, ICM Inc.
  Ethanol Dehydration and Energy Savings with ZEBREX™ Membrane Technology
• Virginia Andrade, Process Engineering Manager, Whitefox Technologies Limited
  Maintaining Profitability in Tight Market Conditions: How Membranes Improve Margins whilst Reducing Carbon Emissions

Conducting effective and informative plant trials is vital to any plant team hoping to leverage the industry’s incredible innovation for increased profitability at their plant. The presentations in this panel make it clear that producers have a deep toolbox to assist them in conducting effective trials more efficiently and more rapidly. Presenters will offer discussions about new spectrometers designed specifically with ethanol plants in mind, new thinking in analytical approaches and conclude with a presentation on the potential for predictive modeling software.

• Jonathon Speed, Product and Applications Manager, Keit Spectrometers
  The Development and Implementation of a Universal Bioethanol Monitoring Sensor
• Cam Fowler, Senior Director Applied Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  New Approaches to Trials and Product Testing
• Tony Schindler, Regional Application Development Leader – Grain Processing, DuPont Industrial Biosciences
  Harvesting the Potential of Plant-wide Modeling in the Ethanol Industry
• Brian Pasbrig, Plant Manager, Show Me Ethanol
  Enhancing Profitability and Productivity in Ethanol Plants by Using Predictive Modeling Tools

In an ethanol market awash in stories of lesser, not greater ethanol use and tight margins, plant teams are hungry to know where their plant stands regarding profitability and the pathways to higher returns from their operation. This discussion offers both. The discussion will begin with a data-rich presentation about the profitability the leaders and laggards of the industry are achieving informed by the industry’s largest benchmarking effort. The discussion will then look at using risk management strategies to lock-in future margins and finish with a discussion about the importance of asking hard questions about the realistic chances of margin improvements promised by new production approaches and technology deployments.

• Chip Whalen, Vice President of Education & Research, Commodity & Ingredient Hedging
  Risk Management in a Changing Margin Landscape
• Connie Lindstrom, Senior Biofuels Analyst, Christianson PLLP
  Finance Snapshot of the U.S. Ethanol Industry
• Brittany Ferguson, Senior Associate, K-Coe Isom LLP
  Increased Efficiency, Increased Profitability?
• Nick Lurty, Principal Consultant, n2 Solutions
  Maximizing the ROI of Your Innovation Program

The ability to create optimal fermentation at ethanol production facilities year-round hinges on the production team’s ability to operate plant cooling towers at great efficiency, especially during the hot and humid dog days of summer. The options available are well understood; new pumps, increased chiller capacity or the addition of new cells or new towers altogether. This discussion dives into the fundamentals of cooling tower operation with the hopes that attendees will walk away better armed to make the right decisions regarding their cooling infrastructure and program moving forward.

• Kent Martens, Chief Technical Advisor, Cooling Technology Institute
  Cooling Tower Fundamentals
• Jeff Prochaska, Biofuels Industry Technical Consultant, Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company
  A Mechanical and Engineering Approach to Optimize Your Cooling Water System
• Andrew Ledlie, Marketing Manager, Solenis LLC
  Novel Approach to Monitoring and Controlling Biofilm in Ethanol Cooling Systems Increases Ethanol Production and Reduces Operating Costs

In many ways, biodiesel and ethanol have a shared history. Both biofuels were developed to add value to a row crop whose downstream markets weren’t delivering the kinds of returns their growers needed. Both industries owe their initial build-out and rapid early growth to the Renewable Fuel Standard and both are now trying to break out of the confines of their first-generation production approaches and blending rates. This panel offers the audience the program’s best opportunity to catch up not only with the policy status of the biodiesel industry but also the developmental progress of pathways that will deliver the industry’s next gallons.

• Julie Jenkins, Research Scientist, Mcgyan Biodiesel LLC
  Applying the Continuous Mcgyan® Process for Advanced Biofuel Production Using Commingled Distillers Corn Oil and Sorghum Oil Byproduct Streams
• Dean Camper, CTO, Saola Energy LLC
  A Technical and Market Review of Converting Corn Oil to Renewable Diesel at Ethanol Plants
• Matthew Moore, Research Chemist, VFT Inc.
  Fiber Reactor Technology