Advocating for Public Policies to Promote the Development & Production of Alternative Fuels, Renewable Chemicals, Biobased Products, and Sustainable Aviation Fuels
Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition
Track 3 Session Details
AFCC Conference Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions are 90 minutes, each one has one moderator with a maximum of four to five speakerss.
Breakout sessions will be focused on the following five subject areas:
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Track 2: Sustainable Feedstocks and Biofuels, Products Driving Decarbonization
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Track 3: Renewable Specialty Chemicals
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Track 4: Synthetic Biology, Alternative Proteins, Regenerative Agriculture, Food & Fiber
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Track 5: Building the Biobased Economy Supply Chain
Track 3 Breakout Session Details
Renewable Specialty Chemicals
This Track is Sponsored by:
Thursday, November 21, 2024
All sessions for this Track will be held in Annapolis 3
Session 1: 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM: Algae - Filling Gaps in Renewable Feedstock Supply Chains
Moderator: Marilyn Bruno, Ph.D., J.D., CEO, Aequor Inc.
Speakers:
Innovations have overcome the challenges to profitable algae cultivation, making algae biomass the most cost-effective, carbon negative feedstock for conversion into biofuels and biobased coproducts, including food, feed, nutraceuticals, chemicals, plastics, fertilizers, wastewater treatments, cement, pharmaceuticals, and a myriad of other products. Panelists will describe their breakthrough work to make algae biomass the multi-billion-dollar industry that it is today, with prospects to grow over 10% annually into the future.
Session 2: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM: Modern Biotechnology Paves the Way for Powerful, Versatile New Enzymes
Moderator: David J. Glass, Ph.D., President, D. Glass Associates, Inc.
Speakers:
In recent years, the toolbox of modern biotechnology has allowed the creation of dozens of new enzyme products for a wide variety of industrial uses. Using techniques like gene-editing, synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, directed evolution and others, often combined with other, classical microbial strain improvement techniques, companies around the world have developed modified strains of microorganisms to manufacture novel enzymes, which not only offer improved performance compared to existing products, but which in some cases represent entirely new enzymatic activities, allowing innovative new industrial applications.
This panel will begin with an overview of the diverse uses and commercial markets for industrial enzymes, along with a summary of the challenges companies in this space may face. The panel will feature speakers from several companies using cutting-edge biological techniques to develop innovative enzyme products, including improved, more efficient enzymes for traditional industrial purposes in food processing, fuel production and other uses, as well as completely novel enzymes that might enable biodegradation of hazardous environmental contaminants. Attendees will gain an appreciation for the role that novel enzymes will play in the bioeconomy in coming years.
Session 3: 1:30 PM to 3 PM: Decarbonization in the Production of Food Ingredients, Additives, Substances, and Food Composting
Moderator: Carolyn Fritz, President, Sage BioAdvisors
Speakers:
This unique panel of experts will focus on advances in industrial biotechnology products for human consumption, renewable chemicals and proteins designed for fish and pets, and food composting. The design of renewable chemicals which includes proteins structured for consumption will be described and the management of food waste.
Cesar Granda, VP Innovation & IP, BioVeritas; Carboxylic Acids from Organic Wastes: Decarbonizing Food, Feed, Chemical and Fuel Industry
Short- to medium-chain fatty acids, encompassing mono-carboxylic acids from 2 to 8 carbons in length (i.e., acetic acid through caprylic acid), are precursors for the production of diverse products within the food, feed, and industrial chemical and fuels sectors. BioVeritas employs an efficient fermentation methodology akin to anaerobic digestion, which uses a robust and self-regulating, non-sterile microbial consortium or microbiome. This microbiome efficiently transforms biodegradable feedstocks, particularly organic wastes or by-products from the food and agricultural industries, into these valuable carboxylic acids. Historically, the extraction of these acids from fermentation effluents posed significant challenges. BioVeritas has developed an innovative, proprietary technology that facilitates the recovery of these acids, ensuring economic viability and environmental sustainability. The prevailing petroleum-based chemical industry, with its capacity to generate a multitude of essential daily-use products, presents a challenging benchmark for biobased alternatives, which is difficult to replace, primarily due to cost. BioVeritas introduces a cost-effective solution for producing these carboxylic acids across various chain lengths. These acids possess a versatile chemistry, enabling their conversion into a wide array of products traditionally derived from petrochemical processes. Consequently, the BioVeritas process emerges as a genuine biobased chemical platform, poised to challenge and potentially replace the conventional petrochemical industry in the current century.
Jianwen Mao, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, AHB; Harnessing the power of Synbio technologies to enable sustainable growth of nutrition and care industries
Synbio technologies have shown many promises to create a bio-based, circular economy to enable sustainable development in materials, renewable chemicals, pharmaceutical APIs and also ingredients for nutritional supplement, food and care products. The use of bio-based feedstocks, recycling of process water, and the use of biomass and green energy to substitute fossil based fuels enable continuous reduction of carbon footprint. Moreover, the biomass and waste streams from enzymatic catalysis as well as fermentation, which is often used as the preferred way of production, can be further utilized to improve soil conditions or as bio-fertilizers. Thus, the utilization of Synbio technologies can truly enable sustainable development. The author intends to use a few examples to illustrate such progresses and seek comments and suggestions from the audience for continuous improvement.
Session 4: 3:30 PM to 5 PM: Commercial Resources for Developing and Scaling Industrial Bioprocesses
Moderator: Chris Guske, Independent Consultant, D2 Biotech Consulting, LLC
Speakers:
President Midwest Bioprocessing Center and President & CEO zuChem Inc
Opportunities in industrial bioprocessing have been growing rapidly in recent years, driven by advancements in biotechnology and a demand for sustainable production methods aligning with trends towards reducing the carbon footprint. The sector encompasses a wide array of products, including biofuels, food ingredients, alternative proteins, specialty chemicals, using fermentation and cell free systems. One challenge that has held back growth in the industry has been the lack of infrastructure and resources to help companies go from concept, through process development, scale-up, demonstration, and finally full-scale manufacturing. Traditionally this has involved each company building out these resources for themselves because they were generally not available on a contract basis. Companies and the government now recognize the opportunity and need for bioprocess infrastructure from both a commercial and a global competitiveness perspective. A growing number of service providers offer cost effective access to process development, optimization and scale-up. In addition, the federal government has begun supporting creation of technology assets to establish a manufacturing framework such as the iFAB Hub – a US EDA designated technology hub focusing on industrial bioprocessing. By outsourcing bioprocessing tasks to specialized contract manufacturers, companies can focus on their core competencies, accelerating time-to-market for innovative products. This session will include speakers offering bioprocess services from basic R&D, scale-up, piloting and through to manufacturing. Discussion will focus on how a robust process development and scale-up infrastructure can accelerate opportunities for biobased products.
Friday, November 22, 2024
All sessions for this Track will be held in Annapolis 3
Session 5: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM: Decarbonizing Renewable Specialty Chemicals into Everyday Consumer Products
Moderator: Rebecca Coons, Research and Analysis, Associate Director, S&P Global Commodity Insights
Speakers:
Global Vice President Key Accounts and Sustainability, Nourish
International Flavors & Fragrances
This panel is composed of leading manufacturers of high performance cost effective and sustainable ingredients that are key components of products in the personal care, cosmetics, home products, and industrial biotechnology sectors.
Morgane Burgorgue, Sustainability Marketing Manager, Kraton Chemical; Partnering To Create Sustainable Performance Products
At Kraton, our vision is to pioneer innovative solutions for a sustainable future. As a leading global producer of pine chemicals, and with nearly 100 years of biorefinery experience, Kraton is dedicated to advancing the biobased economy. We offer innovative solutions to help customers reduce fossil-based materials, increase the use of renewable resources, and lower carbon emissions while enhancing product performance and extending product life.
We achieve this by engaging stakeholders across the value chain, to discover their expectations regarding sustainability, performance, and service aspects. We focus on value-driven innovation—developing high-performance, sustainable solutions that meet the needs of our stakeholders. For instance, in the highly demanding tires industry, the SYLVATRAXX™ product line enables good tire grip without compromising fuel efficiency. Its inherent biobased features enable tires manufacturers to reach their sustainability targets. Similarly, our REvolution™ Rosin Ester technology enables adhesive formulators to reduce their greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, while maintaining excellent adhesion performance and without compromising color or stability. Kraton is steadfast in our commitment to promoting and safeguarding our planet's sustainability. We look forward to demonstrating how we leverage partnerships to create innovative and sustainable solutions without sacrificing performance.
Session 6: 3:30 PM to 5 PM: Developments on Low Carbon Intensity (CI Score) Biobased Specialty Chemicals through Fermentation
Moderator: David Dodds, President, Dodds & Associates LLC
Speakers:
Can we produce valuable consumer, industrial, everyday materials, and chemicals that offer a low carbon intensity score by using synthetic biology and precision fermentations? We will discuss how some of these companies are progressing. Join this diverse panel of thought leaders in Biobased Specialty Chemicals and delivering on ideas and solutions to supply specialty chemicals not derived from fossil feedstocks. We will discuss different perspectives about how their solutions have an influence in meeting a negative carbon economy. These technologies are taking advantage of the industrial biotechnology productivity developments that offer diverse solutions towards a common goal of low carbon intensity delivering low CI score products.