From Aug. 3-5, members of the Northeast Woody/Warm-season Biomass Consortium will gather on the West Virginia University campus to discuss topics relating to commercialization of biomass energy and bioproducts.
The three-day annual meeting will be held at the Erickson Alumni Center and will feature panel discussions and guest presentations from several bioenergy stakeholders.
Supported by a nearly $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, NEWBio is a multi-year project aimed at developing regional, renewable energy markets and generating rural jobs by utilizing marginal agricultural land reclaimed and abandoned mined land to grow energy crops such as perennial grasses and fast-growing woody plants.
WVU is one of 12 partners on the project led by Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Jingxin Wang, professor of wood science and technology in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, leads the university’s participation in the project and the organization of the meeting.
Other WVU scholars involved in the project are Stephen DiFazio, associate professor of biology in WVU’s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Shawn Grushecky, associate director of the Appalachian Hardwood Center, and Jeffrey Skousen, professor of soil science in the Davis College and land reclamation specialist with the WVU Extension Service.
On Mon., Aug. 3, meeting attendees will participate in a field tour of sites in the Morgantown area where NEWBio project trials are being conducted. Stops include a reclaimed mine site with willow shrub trials near Mylan Park and the WVU Agronomy Farm with hybrid willow and poplar shrub field trials.
Attendees will also visit a commercial wood pellet operation where pellets are produced from biomass to be sold at retail stores.
The final stop on the tour will be the WVU Research Forest for a discussion about biomass harvesting in natural stands.
On Tues., Aug. 4, the meeting agenda includes a stakeholder panel discussion featuring:
• Manuk Colakyan, Chief Science Officer, Renmatix
• Kevin Comer, Principal, Antares Group Inc.
• Tom Foust, Director, National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Lab
• Tim Rials, UTenn, Executive Team for SE-IBSS CAP
• Kevin Smith, Project Engineer, CNH Industrial
On the final day of the conference participants will hear presentations from Brian Stanton of Greenwood Resources and Mike Wolcott of NARA Renewables.
Attendees will be present from industry and consortium partners including Penn State University, Cornell University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Delaware State University, Ohio State University, Rutgers University, Drexel University, University of Vermont, USDA-ARS’s Eastern Regional Research Center, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, USDA NIFA.
For more information, contact Wang at 304-293-7601 or jxwang@wvu.edu.
-WVU-
law/07/28/15
CONTACT: Lindsay Willey, Public Relations Specialist
304.293.2381, Lindsay.Willey@mail.wvu.edu
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