Florida will host the 3rd annual Infocast Cellulosic Ethanol Summit to be held in November.
The first two summits were held in Washington DC, but organizers say “the transitional stasis of a federal election year and the accelerated ambition of the states to pursue their own alternative fuel programs, prompted a venue change to Florida which is rapidly proving to be a pioneer in the quest for renewable energy.”
Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob Dinneen is once again serving as chairman of the summit, which will feature both US Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer and Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson as keynote speakers.
A variety of hot-topic issues will be addressed at the summit, including the impact of the biofuels debate on the industry, the burgeoning variety of feedstock supply lines, the growing interest from the financial sector in commercializing industry growth and a trio of reports from the frontline by leading developers from the biochemical, non-enzymatic and industrial biotech communities.
The event will take place November 17-19 at the Westin Colonnade Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida, including a pre-summit briefing on “Developing A Sustainable Cellulosic Ethanol Industry” that will kick off the summit on Monday. Registration and other information can be found here.
The ABE facility is designed to produce 65 million gallons per year of ethanol using regionally grown barley as the primary feedstock. According to the company, barley can be grown in double-crop systems with established food crops such as soybeans in the Mid-Atlantic region. 
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In “Faces,” local Hereford residents explain why ethanol is critical to America’s energy future. In “Places,” the geographic diversity of America’s ethanol industry is on display as the self-proclaimed “Beef Capital of the World” is also home to two ethanol biorefineries. 
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The forum will feature both agricultural and food business leaders, including representatives from the National Corn Growers Association, Missouri Farm Bureau, the American Bakers Association, and the Food and Agricultural Organization.
Five Midwestern states have joined together to develop an electric transmission system that should help promote wind energy in the region.
Officials in Parkersburg, Iowa recently received a check for $10,520 to help them rebuild their town destroyed by an F5 tornado back on May 25, 2008.
The money will go toward buying biodiesel that runs the equipment that continues to cleanup and rebuild the town. If you remember the photo on the left from right after the storm happened at the end of May, the town doesn’t look like that anymore. But there’s still plenty of work to do. It’s nice to know that biodiesel will be part of that effort.
Following the route of the famous Cannonball Run of the 1970s (made even more famous by the movie in 1981), a pair of advertising copywriters will attempt to go from the East Coast to the West Coast… entirely non-stop and entirely on biodiesel.
The latest investments bring the company’s total funding to substantially more than $100 million, and Sapphire is now financed to scale up its production facilities to full commercial feasibility.