You only have two days left to attend the Process Optimization Seminar at the early bird rate. This year’s event is being held on April 27-29th in Houston, Texas and marks the first year where the seminar will couple classroom style learning with hands on activities executed in a refinery and lab. To learn more about the event, I caught up with Jack Rogers via Skype. He is the Bioenergy Marketing Manager for Novozymes, one of the four industry leading companies that are sponsoring the event. The other sponsors include Phibro Ethanol Performance Group, Fermentis and Fremont Industries, and these groups have teamed up together for the past four seminars as well.

“For the industry, reaching that next level of process optimization is really the key for ongoing success,” said Rogers. “And what we wanted to do for this seminar is put together some leading suppliers for the industry and really offer our knowledge and expertise and have the opportunity to interact with our customers to holistically look at the process and give some techniques, tips and training that will help our customers to optimize their plants and become more profitable.”

In terms of the biofuels industry, Novozymes has been a leader for many years in developing enzymes to help optimize the production process for both first generation and next generation biofuels. Rogers said Novozymes has been able to innovate and bring out a lot of new products that have been able to really advance the process. For example, their most recent enzyme launched last year increases the conversion of the starch. By being more efficient in the conversion of starch to sugars, you see a much more efficient process than what was previously possible. As a result, the plants are getting better yields and at the end of the day, this means better profits.

Rogers notes that not only do you need a great product, but also process support and the understanding of how to apply the product or process. “Understanding how to use it optimally, is really the key to gaining those small extra percents of improvement,” said Rogers. “Even half a percent of improvement can be hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in additional profit for a plant.”

This is just one example of the products and technologies that will be discussed and how to integrate them most effectively into your process for higher efficiency and higher profits.

Learn more about the Process Optimization Seminar in my interview with Jack Rogers: Jack Rogers Discusses Process Optimization

Registration is limited and the early bird registration deadline is April 15th. Visit the Process Optimization Seminar website for more information and for online registration.