RTI International hosts global symposium for biofuels and biobased products

More than 160 scientists, engineers, researchers and students from around the world gathered recently to discuss accomplishments in thermochemical biomass conversion research and development and to collaborate on solutions.

Hosted by RTI International, the three-day Symposium on Thermal and Catalytic Sciences for Biofuels and Biobased Products was held at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

"One of the key focal points in R&D is overcoming critical technical barriers to improve the economic competitiveness of technologies that provide sustainable, low-carbon transportation fuel options for the future,” said David Dayton, Ph.D., an RTI Fellow and expert in alternative fuels.

The program included three keynote speakers, 58 oral presentations and nearly 80 poster presentations. Jonathan Male, Ph.D., director for the Bioenergy Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, was a keynote speaker.

RTI President and CEO Wayne Holden, Ph.D., opened the event, calling global energy demands one of the grand global challenges of this century.

“We will have to meet this challenge with sustainable solutions that deliver affordable, clean energy to all,” Holden said. “There is an implicit realization that reducing the carbon intensity of emerging energy resources is necessary to slow the effects of global climate change.”

Attendees also received an overview of RTI’s Laboratory Sciences from Terri Lomax, Ph.D., Discovery, Science, Technology Executive Vice President. “We offer solutions that integrate expertise across the social and laboratory sciences, engineering and international development,” she noted.

RTI’s innovative energy research is committed to finding efficient and sustainable solutions. Learn more about RTI’s biofuels capabilities and emerging technologies in this video.

“The work being done at RTI and by conference participants reinforces the impact that biofuels, bioproducts and biopower will have in the developing bioeconomy to provide sustainable, low-carbon options for future global energy needs,” Dayton said.

For more information, see this recent article and video from UNC-TV.