September 12, 2000
8:30 am to 3:00 pm Indiana State Teachers Association Building
150 West Market Street
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indiana Ethanol Workshop - Summary
Attendance
About 40 people registered for the Indiana Ethanol Workshop held on September 12, 2000, at the Indiana State Teachers Association Building in Indianapolis. The distribution of types were as follows:
Private enterprise - 7
Government agencies - 18
Associations – 6
Academia - 3
Media - 3
The theme for the workshop was “Ethanol: Growing Renewable Energy and Economic Development.” The focus for the Indiana Workshop was value-added, economic development in rural areas, and improving the agricultural climate while improving the environment. The emcee for the workshop was Niles Parker, Acting Director, Energy Policy Division, Indiana Department of Commerce.
The Workshop
The forenoon program covered extensive background information including a presentation sequestration. John Ferrell, Director, Office of Fuels Development, U.S. Department of Energy explained the bioenergy initiative and stated that with the potential of cellulose ethanol, production is expected to triple by 2020. Joe Pearson, Assistant Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Agriculture expressed the need for rural economic development and said that current grain agriculture will benefit from working with the emerging biomass technologies. Bob Reynolds, President of Downstream Alternatives Inc., reviewed the existing and emerging markets for ethanol. Dr. Michael Ladisch, Distinguished Professor, Purdue University, LORRE, explained the promising advances in cellulose pretreatment and how they will have a most positive effect in improving the efficiencies of cellulose ethanol production.
At lunch, Eric Vaughn, President of the Renewable Fuels Association, encouraged the delegates to become aware of he political situation in Washington today. A unique industry crossroads has been reached with the proposal of a renewable fuels standard. Mr. Vaughn said there is an ever-growing marketplace ready to absorb new production from both grain and cellulose feedstocks.
The afternoon focused on information specifically aimed at how to grow the industry in Indiana. In order to learn from states that have ethanol programs, Don Wichert and Ralph Groschen shared the experiences and benefits of Wisconsin and Minnesota programs respectively.
WRAP-UP SESSION
Observations and recommendations from the participants:
Developing meaningful communication with marketers and the petroleum industry to better understand their perspective and needs in order to develop a working alliance.
Education in general – we know that more education is needed and it’s necessary to identify who and how.
Specific education for the environmental community about the significance of ethanol in improving the environment
Getting the word out about the important economic impacts of ethanol production on the rural economy
Value-added processing is a natural for the state and determining how to increase it is necessary.
Indiana can continue and increase its already outstanding role in research and development to help move the industry forward
Short-term follow-on plans:
To help set a path for follow-on activities, Niles Parker said there are plans for two sets of ongoing meetings in the state. One will be about biopower and the other, more relevant to the workshop, will address biomass for transportation. These will be open meetings to which all workshop attendees and other interested people and organizations will be invited to participate. He said the organization of the meetings will occur in late October and the meetings will be held after Thanksgiving.
