Event ID: 744181
Event Started: 6/18/2007 12:43:40 PM ET
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Okay. We will be starting in about five minutes. We would like to know if [ indiscernible
] is on the call.
Okay. Bear with us, we will start in five minutes. Thank you.
Could you stay around until we actually get it going?
I will.
Thanks.
Hi Jeff.
How are you doing?
Good afternoon everybody, we will start in about one minute.
Thank you.
The instructions say to have the mute button on unless you speak.
I will check on that.
Okay. Thank you.
Hello?
Hello?
Hello.
Hello, we are doing one last change, please bear with us, in one minute we will start.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you. Good morning everyone, and good afternoon to those in the afternoon. The
first thing I am going to do is to please ask, when you are not speaking, please put your
phone on silence or mute.
We are going to start now. My name is Michaelive re. We would like to welcome you to
the web conference of fuel. This is the conference of U.S. and bray and Brazil. I would
like you to think about the stack that Brazil has reduced energy use by 40% compared to
the world average of -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] That is a staggering figure. It has
reduced it's energy use by the fuels and in the United States we are in six%. Again please
keep your phone quiet when you are not speaking. If you are going to speak -- or not
speak, press star six to mute or silence your phone and star six again to unmute your
phone. If you have questions you can type them in your chat box in the lawyer left part of
-- lower left part of your screen and when you type a question, -- type a question we
prefer that you type it to an individual person, but we would prefer that you type it to all
of us.
If you have a question please call 12023666657. To begin the technical part this is to
share the information, technology, and best practices in United States and Brazil. And our
goal is to find ways to cooperate in the future. Please be thinking about that. This is good
to have a discussion between United States and Brazil, but how can we collaborate in the
future? I would like to take a bit to go through the agenda. Shelby thank you very much if
you can see the agenda on the screen. We are going to have introductory comments as we
are doing now and then we are going to have experts throughout United States about the
fuel in the United States. We will then hear from Brazil, we have two experts from Brazil
and then we have Marilyn [ indiscernible ] from Brazil who speaks on the energy of
minds and fuel in Brazil and then we will have [ indiscernible ] who is from the federal
University of [ indiscernible ] We will finish this conference in about two hours time.
Okay.
We in the United States government consider our relationship with Brazil to be high
priority. We are happy that we are continuing this discussion with Brazil. This is the sixth
web conference that we have had with Brazil through a web conference and we will
continue to have them. We have technical assistance, training courses, and Brazilian
experts coming to U.S. and U.S. going to Brazil and we will continue to do that. We are
pleased with the quality of the people on the call we have world experts for those on the
call both from United States and Brazil.
To set the scene in the United States, we would like to show three slides for you and we
would like to thank you, Madeline Harris, and the first slide is for the United States, and
it shows renewal energy from a total of energy in 2005. Six% of our energy in the United
States is sourced from the renew able information. The 96 is the gas and coal. It is a
staggering figure compared to Brazil.
The next slide is about highway use of motor fuels, that is 71% on gas line, gasahols
21.6% and [ indiscernible ] is for the fuel, and that is electrified petroleum and petrified
gas and son on. And the last thing is in the United States is the transportation of energy
consumption. This is for land and sea transportation in the number of BTU, the quad
drillon BTU's as you can see the motor gas line, by far it should be 77.11%. I'm sorry
about that. Gas line is by -- gas so lean is by far -- et thannal -I am going to pass it to our moderator Bill [ indiscernible ] and he will lead through the
discussion. Let me take one minute, can everyone hear okay?
No audible response.
Thank you, I will pass it to Bill as the moderator.
Thank you.
We will have seven penters from -- presenters from the U.S. A and a note to the
presenters is to keep track of the time so we will have enough time for all of the
presenters and we can have follow up questions. Dr. Chef field is the mechanical testing
in Missouri science tech and then there is the University of [ indiscernible ] transportation
center. Earlier he served as the industrial -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] and now he has the
energy for the world transportation test set.
Professor?
Thank you very much. I will give you a brief presentation about the activities at the
university transportation here at the University of Missouri. In the first slide you can see
the mission that is a broad research training and educational agenda which pursues to
develop a rural hydro again test bed. I will show a few examples. In the second, I would
like to show two development activities. The first one is hydro etal. I would like to give
you a flavor of our activities. This next slide demonstrates the initiative that is
appropriate for this webinar. And what we accomplished here is through a supercritical -water process. This is demonstrated by Dr. Leigh who is in the classroom from a direct
version of et thannal. There is no reversion catalyst and decrease, lower temp which you
ares, and there is no -- temperature of temperatures and there is no need for -- [
Speaker/audio not clear ] and this is the activities that we are quite interested in looking at
future opportunities.
In the third slide what we accomplished here is through a modeling simulation and design
opposition through the safe installation and operation, Dr. [ indiscernible ] has been
working on this activity and this slide shows you the example of four different models
that are looking at the localized on the loading and the impact and other composite
materials.
Just recognizing that -- [ OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS ]
[ OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS ]
[ OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS ]
[ OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS ]
Ladies and gentlemen, please remember to mute your phone when you are not speaking,
we are hearing background noise. You may use star six to mute and unmute your phone,
thank you.
And then the last slide, the fourth slide I give a contact list, there we are, a contact list
both myself and Dr. Leigh for further information and look forward to future
opportunities.
Thank you.
Bill?
Thank you professor.
Our next presenter is mon coo [ indiscernible ] and she is in the center of civil and
environmental engineering at [ indiscernible ] unit. The state University of New Jersey.
When you are ready professor.
Hello.
Yes can you hear me?
We can hear you in the United States, it's very wakemen coo, a little louder please.
I will do it by the hand set then.
Can you hear me?
Hello?
Much better now, thank you.
Well, thank you. It is a pleasure to participate in today's webinar joining me from [
indiscernible ] is Michael Kay and professor [ indiscernible ] This is for facility of [
indiscernible ] who have lead roles and they are by the contributors on the list slide.
There is 150 faculty members of the art and sciences to contribute to the energy portfolio
of [ indiscernible ] It is for organizing the energy research policy, implementation and out
reach of [ indiscernible ] In slide two, I have organized our presentation around two
central questions posed several weeks ago with the initial phone conference. The first
question is what is the standard of the renew able fuels. At rud considers is by the
Department of Energy, Department of Defense, national science foundation, office of
naval research and the board of utilities. They current total $7.6 million, in slide four, I
would like to highlight key areas of the transportation. The first is for the fuels of mobile
and stationary sources. Several hybrid electrical vehicles are in progress. And this is
linked to the institute of [ indiscernible ] and devices and -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
transport energy is currently in research. In slide six energy storage is an important
concept. This focuses on materials for batteries and hydrogen storage.
In slide, this is on the design and optimization of it. This is for the feed stocks of the fuels
and operations. This is by Mike line and the engineering Department of Rud considers.
The idea here is to be able to design a fuel processing plant and operations depending on
the check industry of the -- chemistry of the fuel. This is for the production of chemicals
of interest of feed stocks. We need to consider the future of the near medium and the long
future that may be dynamic. Energy processing can be optimized for the vehicles. For the
past 15 years they have collaborated through the memoranda of understanding of research
of training of bio fuels. This is for the model of standard efforts for the University of [
indiscernible ] They are the adaptation of the sur gar cain and -- sugarcane.
At the under graduate level we have an exchange program in the biotechnology and the
Brazilian agency tapes. In stage nine the research collaborators include Dr. [ indiscernible
], Dr. [ indiscernible ], and Dr. [ indiscernible ] and Dr. [ indiscernible ]
The areas of expertise I list on the left hand side.
In slide 10 the bio tech includes the Dr. 's listed above.
The other ones listed for the [ indiscernible ] group are listed on the left.
Slide 11 we address the second question, how has the industry developed and how has it
manufactured through the fuels. This is a new question, and we don't know much about
this area given the diversity of the components.
In slide 12 we give an example of how the indepth look relating to the policy of the
indepth fuels are in concept.
Last September the hydrogen learning system sponsored a synapse item on the workshop.
We believe it should be conducted on the knowledgeable fuels of transportation. That
would include the participants on the webinar. In slide 13 we believe the early investment
on the technology will be hear soon. The national frame work is important, but the
regional and state are important for the implementation and acceptance.
Finally the component are important for the building of the partnership. Based on this -based on this successful experience we believe will be significant components in training
professionals on the fuels of transportation and finally contact information and thank you
for listening to our presentation today.
Thank you mon coo.
We will now hear from David [ indiscernible
Speaker/audio unclear due to echoing sounds.
Are you ready to start?
I am joined hear by professor Jeff [ indiscernible ] of the mechanical engineering who
leads our program as well as the graduate students as well as Beth [ indiscernible ] here.
This is for the [ indiscernible ] research program on the bio tech fuel and then to answer
questions about the MTU Brazil collaboration.
Slide two please. I would like to start by presenting aspects of initialives of the faculty
and students this started three years ago on the tech to sorbitan the -- -- sustain able
development.
This includes the aspects of the environmental line. This is economic, [ indiscernible ],
and -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
Slide three please.
Faculty and students in the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] are shown in the diagram.
The centers and the research programs are presented in there on the NSF products and the
Department of Service.
This is valued at more than $10 million.
Slide four please.
Buy tech at Michigan tech is on four thrust areas.
Vehicle and engine research, assessments, sustain ability decisions.
Slide five.
Shown on this slide is a complete list of is SSI research projects that have a significant
component that have been completed or on going or are pending. The sources of the
research funding are distributed between the federal and the resource developments.
Slide sixth, one of the -- slide six, one of the industries under FSI is the project on the
renew able projects this is from the school of [ indiscernible ] and mechanical
engineering and environmental engineering and social science. All of the three areas are
being investigated as shown in the figures. The support tools like GIS, geographical
system and the [ indiscernible ] from the main research areas and build a intest grated
analysis -- ininterrogate grated -This is on the energy firns say, slide eight?
The net effect of research in the wooden wheels enterprise would be to increase the
amount of total U.S. petroleum on the [ inaudible ] reduced by 30% and 40% due on the
biotechnology.
Slide nine. Another important area of the release activity is in hydrogen in fuel and fuel
cell techniques these inlewd [ indiscernible ] -- include [ indiscernible ] and fuel cells,
hydrogen and internal come bust shun -- come bust and this is research and educational
activities involving the hydrogen and the fuel cells. My final slide is for a wrap up and
thank you for joining us and we hope to collaborate with the Brazilian institutes again.
[ Speaker/audio not clear ]
I would like to remind or ask all of the presenters to speak slowly, this will allow things
to come across on the speakerphone and internationally and it will allow the voice
recognition software that is trance posing this -- transposing the messages being
interacted. We are hoping that they are -- we are on time and we hope we meet this
effectively.
In Brazil our colleagues could send a text note online to let us know if it is coming
through clearly or if there is any issues to allow everything to progress without generated
the voice or who ever might be speaking.
Okay.
We will continue forward. Our next presenter is Mark [ indiscernible ] He is the director
of the intramodel transportation institute in to lead do, on the utilization and the [
indiscernible ] project.
Mark are you ready?
Mark, you may want to check your mute button.
Mark are you on?
I am still not hearing you.
Okay. I am going to ask -- I am going to continue on -- if Mark when we come back
please check your audio system and reconnect, it's not coming through.
Can you hear me now?
Yes, that's good.
Yes, I was on a conference and I just picked up the phone.
Let me start again. As you can see by the presentation this was prepared by Frank [
indiscernible ] He is from the University of to lead do and is a vice president. This is a
critical element of the research of Toledo.
This is a presentation readily given and available to the people at the -- [
OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS ] -At the Ohio board of education and research. This is important to Ohio. It's important to
point out that the work being done at the University of TOL ED A involving the three
businesses of technology, mechanic account and engineering.
The research focuses on several areas. The first two are on the [ indiscernible ] take and
the Electric again ration and hydro -- again generation bio mass energy storage batteries
and transportation technologies. I think there is a couple of things to point out here that is
of interest. In the technology area there is a heavy focus on the hybrid vehicles the
batteries and energy storage of that. There is also an emphasize on hydraulic hybrids and
the use to save energy and there is a private sector entremendous pen neuro. There is a
loco motive power for the etal and the bide sail fuel.
The next slide please.
The next slide please. Just recreptly the -- recently the University of Ohio and other
universities was given $18 million of spending and that was matched by 4 million-dollar
a another $4 million on the matching the funds.
The reason I have provided this information is because this is the approach we like to use.
There is multiple universities industry and important nonprofit research and organizations
to bring that together so we can work as one.
The next slide please.
The University of Toleda, has research in [ indiscernible ] and silicon sole so sole cells
we are using units to absorb the energy or the electricity or to generate that process.
Next slide please.
What you see here is the alternate energy incubator. This is for the [ Speaker/audio not
clear ] of the university and there is a major photo take display out front that was funded
by the state of Ohio.
Next slide please.
The application to move -- to vehicles currently we have a demonstration project
sponsored by the U u U.S. Department of Energy who takes the solar who stores it to
empower the vehicle. They are trying to take all of the father processes into a single unit
and that would capture the raise and then it would become hydrogen and that would be
captured for the vehicle. This is a research that is a long way from the commercial
application but it is an important take on this hydrogen fuel intake.
The University of Toled a who is working on fuel cell net work and catalyst design and
testing equipment and we have been involved with that for a couple of years.
Next slide please.
Bio mass, we have funded -- we are in the process of seeking funding for a demonstration
project to take the bench work and the bio mass and put that in the production that is a
one-10 scale of producing about a million barrels of product a year and that would be
used to -- would be sold to fund the projects this is -- and this is about a $40 million
endeavorer.
We are also involved in the application of bio key sail to the [ indiscernible ] DIESAL.
This is fur the -- this is used for the ultra low sulfur material converted to ultra low
deiseal, we also have a hydrogen use project where we have the project and injected it in
the bust and reduces the fuel economy and the process. That process is under way.
The next slide please. Finally as we talked about earlier our efforts in the hydraulic
funded vehicles are funded by the Department of Energy we have created a test vehicle
and that was demonstrated in Washington DC last spring. Work continues to be taken for
the hybrid vehicles in production. If there are any questions I will be happy to take those
now or later.
Thank you.
Thank you Mark.
We will now hear from Erin [ indiscernible ] She is an assistance program manager at the
transportation energy path way steps program and institution of program studies of the
California studies of Davis.
Air Ron when you are ready. I am joined bill [ indiscernible ] at -- by [ indiscernible ]
I would like to give you the program background. This is a broad collaboration, it's our
own department, but it's a broad collaboration across the campus with many many
faculty. We have $25 million to study Chevron and bio mass studies on the states, but the
states more generally we have a few of the bio energy and bio mass research groups that I
will talk about later. First I would like to talk about the transportation studies. The next
slide please.
The steps program is a large research program that is focused on developing methods that
are on the come bust methods it's looking at a new way of the fossil -- fossil fuel
infrastructure. It is funded by a con sob item of thety leaders allows for the easy
collaboration and interaction of the members of the program. This is interdependent on
multipath ways. We have people in the program from engineering, policy, economics,
anthropology and this allows us to make broad studies across the whole field of energy
and public policy. The knowledge part of the asimilar nation, we are transferring our
research to policy makers and the places where it may do the most benefit and of course
educating the engineers and scientist and policy makers so there can be more informed
decisions made for the plans and the business plans that go into them.
Next slide please.
So the steps program is based on four fuel path ways, it's hydrogen, bio fuel, [
indiscernible ], [ indiscernible ] The high dry hydrogen path way which focused on the
business plans related to hydrogen and bio fuels we have many on campus most noticed
is the bio fuel research groups which has over 100 research examples that are running the
vehicles on them and inconjunction of the other resource energy. We have obtained $3
million over the next three years in the California commission to start a resource center to
study and develop methods for running vehicles and policies for running vehicles all
Electric or blended with electricity and ICU's and then we have fossil cases and advance
fossil fuel cases and the way the step program comes up with is the metrics that come up
with all of these different tracks.
Next slide please.
The four tracks are arranged across the top. The six threads are aarranged on the left side
of the vehicle.
We make a consistent evaluation of the fuels and what goes into that.
The six areas of our research is markets and behavior and the infrainstruction energy
analysis, policies, and business strategies, vehicle administration and the scenarios for the
specific region and one of the specific regions we are studding is the life -- studdying is
the life cycle of the -[ Speaker/audio not clear ]
In addition the University of California is selected by the area of the resources board -Speaker/audio unclear due to loud background noises. [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
[ Speaker/audio not clear ]
[ Speaker/audio not clear ]
[ Speaker/audio not clear ]
Developing accurate ways for the fuel.
To alternative fuel by finding a carbon impact for each fuel and -- [ Speaker/audio not
clear ]
[ Speaker/audio not clear ] [ Speaker/audio not clear ] [ Speaker/audio not clear ] [
Speaker/audio not clear ] [ Speaker/audio not clear ] [ Speaker/audio not clear ] [
Speaker/audio not clear ] next slide please.
So as I said -- it provides a durable frame work and it will stimulate the technological
stimulation for the lower car and energy fuels it can generate credit for trade in the
industry. And this research performed by UC Davis and Berkeley and it is expected to
make its way to further policy.
So in conclusion is for the energy fuels and the fossil infrastructure. We have the bio
energy research group and we have the California bio mass collaborative and that is
focused on the management in the bio mass in California. And we have the resource
assessment group and that is for the bio mass and bio energy reserves across the United
States and the University of California is interested in the collaboration of the states and
U.S. and Brazil. And with that I am happy to answer any questions or take them at any
time.
Thanker Ron.
We will now here from alevin [ indiscernible alevin -- he is a research developer at north
Dakota state university.
We are doing okay on time, so please present clearly and speak slowly so that everyone is
able to hear.
Thank you.
Professor.
Hello. Thank you everyone for your time in allowing me to present here today. I am
going to first give a broad overview of the research that is going on in North Dakota state.
I would forth like to talk about -- first lime like to talk about -- [ indiscernible ]
university. Recently we just completed a campus wide conference that brought together
all of the departments on campus who was doing research in the areas of bio fuels we
have a research listed on the slide for the departments and the plant sciences involved in
the hybrid crops that allow the -- essentially allows the increase of research in north
Dakota. Typically the north Dakota has not been a large developing state due to the
shorter growing season and as far as the engineering department goes with the agriculture
environmental system they have been doing a lot of work as far as making the work more
efficient. My background is agriculture economics. There is a water research specifically
now of finding ways to make it more profit able for farmers and specially -- especially to
reach the maximum benefits in the state.
North Carolina there is -- North Carolina the there ask a lot of research.
There is environmentally sensitive ground in production to make the prairie grass. A lot
of those acres are -- acres will be able to come out of the [ indiscernible ] program. And
the new varity is -- varity is expected they will be turned from the Mary grass to the -Mary -- prairie grass into corn production. They are trying to find policy method on the
states for the increase of corn production as well.
I will get to two studies here in the a -- here in a little bit. My background is forking
agriculture background and it focuses on the impacts a the infrastructure within the state
and the last part we will go over that more in detail.
We have a lot of structures in the business department looking at the piece ability studies
for the -- feasibilities and background.
We were established by the north Dakota state legislator. They understand the research in
north Dakota. In 1967 we started with two employees and now we are around 45
employees. Within [ indiscernible ] we have several programs which all follow under the
umbrella of UTBTI which are on the next slide.
I will just briefly cover each of these the strategic analysis center. This works directly
with the north Dakota legislature which means every two years. They work with the
legislatures where we can strategically find where they spend their funds. The second [
indiscernible ] industry -- largest industry in North Dakota and they look at the chick
impacts the -- the impact of the current infrashuck which you are of the -- infrastructure
of the United States. There is a lot of the cities in the upper Midwest. The [ indiscernible ]
center works directly with the Department of Transportation in north Dakota. And it
allows of new projects as they go through and get their masters degree. They have a lot of
hands on work.
There is a lot of rural communities in north Dakota in providing access to statewide
mobility and improving the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
The TL M transportation learning net work which is part of the mountain plains con S.
Through the video conferencing software so we can have the presentations between the
state and the universities. The transportation through the [ Speaker/audio not clear ] is
located in lake wood Colorado and that is in rural Colorado, and that is an infrastructure
design and things like that. There is a similar purpose and goals.
Now I will get into a couple of studies that we currently have going.
The next slide please.
The first is Mark burr wick and Mark [ indiscernible ] who are parting in on the -participating on the calls and they are researching on the fuels in the mountain region and
the scope of the studies is north Dakota, Colorado, Montana, and [ indiscernible ]
Essentially the goal of this study is to look at the benefits and the [ indiscernible ] for the
fuel use in the upper great plains. They do this by examining the regional factors on the
fuel -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] For the alternative fuel policy and the transportation on
the transportation sectors and finally I am going to complete couple of case studies
looking at the municipal state and plan throughout the state. Far go moor head have the
transit to transferring their buses over to the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] We are looking
at this by putting the carte before the short so to -- horse so to speak.
Last slide please.
In this next study here we look at the highway impacts due to the vocational studies this
is the spirit et than all plan in spirit wood energy park in north Dakota and it is built
around a car gill [ indiscernible ] plant that has been in [ indiscernible ] for a number of
years. In addition to a [ indiscernible ] plant it is going to be a $100 million year et
thannal plant typically being corn and that are looking at a $35 million-gallon et thannal
FAS till and at the -- facility and they are fairly rich of the coal, and that is primarily west
of the river in North Dakota. Et thannal production requires a lot of water as it turns out
the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] they are going to realize the energy of reusing the water
and the waste water among the different types of plants.
Excuse me.
Some of the key features of the analysis is the corn changes in the et thannal plant in
spirit wood. We are going to ask that there is a change in production as well as the
interviewing of the local producers and working with the ago Ag -- Ag statistic services
in the changes of corn production. One of our GIS researchers have developed a terrific
model which will flow the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] to the processing plants. This is
done using Ag statistic services on the satellite reading. And imaging that we can get the
actual production one by 1 mile section in north Dakota.
And finally, once we have the first three steps give us a number of trucks that are going
to be going to the facility and the location and the routes they are going to be taken and
from this we are going to be looking at the impacts for the state and county and highway
system. That completes my presentation, if you have any questions I will be glad to take
them or if I can type my contact information down in the lower left of the chat box you
can call me.
Thank you alevin, we will keep moving along. I have asked Dr. Query nips who is the -Dr. Carry nips who is conducting the major University of bio based [ indiscernible ]
program.
Terry, when you are ready.
Please remember to take your phone off of mute.
Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Okay.
I thought I had it off of mute, but maybe not. I think may presentation is off of mute, but - I am the executive director for the sun grant initiative and on the very first slide I have
my can't information should you wish to get into contact after this discussion.
Next slide please.
A little bitover background the sun ground initiative was established in the year 2000 as
an effort to bring all of the land grant university -- land grant university and colleges
together to look at how we can -- to impress the bio mass, products and energy and use
the same [ indiscernible ] and infrastructure that has supported agriculture so well in the
further development of bio products and bio mass. As I think you all know, we have a
land grant university in every state and territory of the United States, and north Dakota
state university and the University of California Dave is also land grant colleges. The
reason it was established was intended for a national effort for the Department of
Agriculture and energy, and transportation as well as the environmental protection
agency. We have developed partnerships over the last six or seven years with each of
these agencies and we also wanted to organize the land in a way that is a bit different than
it has been done. We function very well on a state by state basis, and local problems and
specifics and needs, we realize that bio mass for bio energy production is also a regional
issue, just because of course of the weather patterns and climates and [ indiscernible ] and
it will collaborate on a reasonable skill. We wanted to produce a [ indiscernible ] to
address their goals and priorities through the collaborated level programs and Tourette
means where they can coordinate more effectively on the individual states.
Next slide please.
So you see here we have a map of the United States. It has agriculture culture coul -colleges throughout United Stateses, those include the historical colleges and the black
ledges and the -- colleges and the native American colleges throughout the country.
Next slide please.
And then another click.
There we go -- oh, we -- we went forward and backgrounds. How about going forward.
There we go. Well, let's keep going.
Okay.
One more fard.
We seem to be in a -- forward.
We seem to be in a loop.
Can we go forward.
We seem to be going backgrounds.
It's giving us difficulty.
Okay. That is good.
Can I ask who ever is controlling the presentation, please stop for one moment and I will
get us back on track.
Thank you.
That's good. Please go forward. Okay that's good right there.
That shows the regions that we organize the land grants into so there is a region in the
northeast and the southeast, north central, region in the south central and a region in the
west. The centers for each of those regions include core Nell in the northeast and
University of Tennessee in the southeast, and southeast university for the north central
and Oklahoma state university for the south central and organize university for the
southwest.
And those are the universities that service the centers for each of those reasons.
Thank you.
Next slide.
We are working with USDA, DO E, and the Department of Transportation and we are
trying to coordinate and leverage the activities let me spend just a moment on a project
that is being led by the Department of Energy and that is collaborating. The sun grant is
working with the Department of Energy to hold a series of workshops. In each of those
regions we are looking at the Department of Energy goal to producing a billion tons of
the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
We have asked experts from the academic and the state and local governments to the
private sector to sit down and work through the capacity of what that regions are and
work through the production of bio mass. We have had two workshops so far last year,
one in the southeast and the other in north central and in the coming year we will have
workshops in the southeast -- northeast, south central and the southwest.
We are going to look at the bio mass potential of each of those regions and this is to
develop decision making tools that layer the climates and the soil types and the veggation
of -- vegetation of the event titties. And -- entities and where we would be for that and to
increase the production for the most and then is where the production comes in and this
will be on the grid and talk about where the advantageous locations for the bio -- [
Speaker/audio not clear ] and how they effect the bio mass capacities in their areas. As
we all know one of the great living steps at this point is the cost of shipments and the cost
of transporting the heavy lead or the materials.
Next slide please.
For the work that the sun grant is doing in collaboration with the Department of
Transportation, part of our efforts are of course national, part of our efforts are being lead
by the individual centers but what we are working on at the moment is the establishment
of the regional competitive program. We have from the Department of Transportation
$40 million over the course of four years to manager through this program. This comes
out to about $10 million a year and that is divided into each of the five regions or 2
million-dollars per center per year. We sat down with the Department of Transportation
and they inturn invited the Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy, the
Department of Defense, and the environmental protection agency and we waked through
what their priorities were at the national level and worked through what we under stood
would be the best way to address those priorities and a request for the proposals went out
to the regions to meet those priorities. We have received as of today 100 proposal per
region and we are in the review process of the proposals and we hope to conclude in the
next several weeks.
This is going to be a great opportunity for the collaboration in the future. The land grant
universities have to be a part of the participation for the propose but others can certainly
be participants in the program, and in the next level this could be a part of the program to
apply jointly for the colleagues on the phone with Brazil and become a part of that
program in the next generation.
The next slide please.
Our priority in the current years is the bio fuel, production, analysis, economics, policy,
and the environmental mass for energy purposes. And of course there is more detailed
break out that goes with each of nose categories -- each of those categories. I am going to
skim past the next few slides. But if you look at this later will it will show the resource
centers of each of them and we tried to divide them up between the universities and as the
universities that we have mentioned here today. And [ indiscernible ] is AMS a land -- is
a land grant university. Many of these I understand constitutions have a -- institutions
have them as well. We are try to coordinate with them.
The very last slide here is the cover slide or the front page for the website that we have
developed in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of
Energy and transportation and it's an online encyclopedia of all of the things that have
been developed and has went public about a month ago as the little area is indicating the
link to the slide is at the bottom of the page. This is a continuing developing resource, the
first phase was to develop the encyclopedia part of this. One of them was for the
interested audience and the next layer is for the technical efficientest -- scientist and
economist and those interested.
We will be collecting the research notes as available.
I will stop there.
Thank you Kerry.
We will hold the presentations until the end. We also have two Brazilian presenters and
we will move forward to Brazil, and first up will be Marvin [ indiscernible ] director of et
thannal and bio deiseal in the energy of minds and energy. He is the coordinator of fuels
department with the primary responsibility to monitor and evaluate with the government
agencies and the market conditions of the fuels of external and internal market and to
promote with adequate public policies the insertion of new renew able fuels in the
Brazilian energy matrixes and also coordinate actions and policy in the renew able area.
Marvin?
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much once again. I hope I can share some points about the Brazilian
policy and to discussion with you the -- discuss with you if initiate -- the initiatives that
we are monitoring and pursuing with the United States in order to achieve the
international market for the bio fuels.
Next please.
Thank you.
In our presentation about the Brazilian bio fuels, we will look at the presentation and the
sugar cain bio -- cain company and buy you fuel.
The next slide. Well we must take a look first at the world energy contest. Within it we
can highlight the world economic growth in china and U.S., that growth brings a
demanding growth and we have a climate change of reality and high prices for the energy
and we also must focus that the refining capacities and the limits, there are several [
indiscernible ] in conflict. The support to supply countries and the strong dependens say
on the energy resources.
Regarding the Brazilian policy we have some objective that are established by law. One
of the objectives is to increase the bio news on the matrix -- bio fuel matrix to protect the
environment. I think we are going to achieve this because last year we achieved the -- our
oil self-sufficiency and we must think of the consumers best interest through the
regulatory agencies and finally to promote free competition and in our Brazilian matrix, I
think we must say that as it was said in the Michael [ indiscernible ] introduction. We
have 44.5% of the renew able sources at the energy matrix and we are grewing. We are -growing we are also stimulating the use of renew able sources we are going to see the
share of et thannal and we are going to see that it is growing and if we think about the bio
tease value and we will say that the -- bio tease l, we will see that will diminish in the
next years or decades I think we are going to stabilize the share of this in about 33%,
one/3 of the energy mix.
The next slide will be the current matrix of the vehicle fuels of 2006. We in Brazil, we
have a strong share of key so fuel, I think all of the products that we have in
transportation matrixes we have a great share of key sail for the goods and other -- how
can I say the economic.
It's made of the pure gas sew gasoline which is mixed of two to 25% of the -- 20 do 25%
of the hydrogen. This is the fuel for the et thannal vehicles in Brazil. We have the BMG
and the B2 which is the diesel blended of bio diesel, the share of et thannal in our share of
vehicles amounts to -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
The Brazilian experience of having et thannal together is not a [ Speaker/audio not clear.
With have the -- we have the culture in 1925. From 1925 to 2006 we can see the benefits
with the users et thannal.
But -- however it was with the program of -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] in 1975 that the
sugar company sector was for the of the blend of et thannal and gasoline and to use the
hybrid as a fuel.
The consequence brought by the this policy is a cleaner fuel and allowed Brazil to
completely abolish the production that we had to. The advance technology has made it
possible. As I said we have the etal which is mixed from pure gasoline and that is used in
the autocycles and genes. In 1979, they begin to sell 100 manufactures of et thannal. At
that time we had some percentage that was established in 1975. It must be lower than the
gasoline price. The government guaranteed the elimination of the producer. We had -- [
Speaker/audio not clear ] increase their capacity and we have gas stations that were
obligated to sell aliquot hall. They must -- alcohol and they must have a pierrettal pump
and they also may have the -- I don't know if the word is the most adequate for this
concept, but we must see now that the only remaining incentive is the tax reduction of the
high [ indiscernible ] alcohol costs. All of the other percentages are EM bollished and
there is no -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] in the et tonal companies. There is a mature and
private sector contributing to the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] and the supply chain for
the et than follow fuel for the whole country. We can see the agents of the sugar cain
industries and that puts it available in the country. We have 50,000 sugar company
planters that produces the sugar companies and we have more industry plants that are
going to start running this year and also I think merely 17 new industrial plants are going
to run from this year, b 2007, and this is the remain of the agriculture the agriculture
phase is the remaining phase of the agriculture. And then the et thenal was produced and
now we have one 60 distributers. That goes to the gas stations and the exporters and the
gas stations, 92% of all gas stations have a ethanol pump. They have that in a executive
basis. -- competitive basis. We exported mostly of that to the U.S. and the taxes and all
taxes that are put in our -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] and directly in the United States
market. The next slide shows some figures for the ethanol. We have 1800 cubic meters
and a crop production for the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] -- and the export of 2006 as I
said $3.4 million cue bib meters -- cubic meters per year. This is not a infrastructure of [
indiscernible ] I believe that is another 4 million cubic meters per year. As I feel we will
have some investments that will amount in $8.6 million in planting in the culture and -- [
indiscernible ] in the production and the comparison in 2006 of the -- [ Speaker/audio not
clear ]
And this with other investments from the federal [ indiscernible ] They will [
Speaker/audio not clear ] from four, nowadays to 4 million cubic meters per year and we
are going to reach 12 million cubic meters per year.
The next slide.
This slide shows the location of our sugar mules nowadays 2007, and we have two
regions that compliment each other. And the south region produces -- [ Speaker/audio not
clear ] of Brazil. We have two regions and the most part of the productions come from
the south part of the region and as I said the production in -- prediction in 2006 is 7.8
milliters.
The next slide shows the center south region we have a region in the center south region.
We have an area and they grow sugar company from more than 50 years and we have a
project from satellite images that monitors the crops of the sugar cain and -- cain and that
is going to forecast and have a more accurate prediction of how many liters of ethanol.
Figures.
We have a region that is -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ] That is important to say because
we have a profit of deceasers that are going to devastate the -- [ Speaker/audio not clear ]
in order to grow the cigar c -- sugar
-- so we cannot harvest sugar cane in order to produce ethanol because the sugar cane that
grows there will have a greater amount of water than sugar or sucrose. Next slide. 2006
was a very important year because the 2006-year was the year of the total flex fuel.
Hello? That can use any mixture of gasoline and ethanol from zero to 100 percent. So this
gives the consumer true conditions bad. In 2006 it represented 76 percent of all let
vehicles. In the total domestic sales from 2003, the year that this technology was
launched until 2006 we had 2.67 million units sold of flex fuel vehicles. We have now
2.97 million automotive manufacturers settled in Brazil that are producing nearly 100
different models of total flexible [ indiscernible ] the next slide got this side is very
important to show the will economy and the and permit the benefits that we had that the
ethanol are commonly brought to Brazil. This shows the amount of fuel that would be
necessary to satisfy the demand for light vehicles. If we think that Brazil gasoline
production was the black line, this line -- this line. In the conception was the lower line,
we have to consider that all of these areas of this between the upper and lower curve was
fulfilled by ethanol. This is very important. Is that all was able to produce the economy of
813 million barrels of oil equivalent or 13 months of the present Brazilian patroleum
production. And cumulative the economy of 18 years of gasoline consumption and we
have considered the prices of -- by the we are talking about is almost $60 billion of the
economy. And it is not only an economy of oil. It was also an economy that was practical
to the environment. In this period of the ethanol usage, the commission was devoted of
6.2 million. And if we consider the current credit market we are talking about $16 billion
of the economy. If we consider the total economy in both areas, the area that's displaced
the consumption of gasoline and with the gasoline that was exported we are talking about
1.1094 billion of barrels of oil equivalent or 23 million barrels of the present Brazilian
petroleum production. The next slide shows some comparison of the cost of production of
ethanol with different raw materials, European Union wheat which is the most expensive
raw material. The U.S., I think that the U.S. is now reaching a lower-cost production.
Australian sugar cane, fifty-one dollars per barrel. Thailand's sugar cane is $46 per barrell
and the Brazil sugarcane is $32 per barrel in the season production. Another example is
the energy balance of the ethanol production. From one unit of energy we can extract
eight units of energy from our Brazilian sugar cane. This is very interesting and we know
that this gives us an advantage -- a competitive advantage. So we can produce more
ethanol with low-cost with better results regarding the energy balance of production. So
more than nowadays contribution to the environment and to the energy matrix and to the
vehicle fuel matrix we can say that the ethanol contribution to the hydrogen economy is
going to become a reality. And if we join some of fuel cells with the ethanol production
plus a -- and injector and the technology, we are one step toward the hydrogen economy.
Now let's talk a little bit about bio diesel experience. Brazil has a raw material diversity
for production of bio diesel in the whole country we have been is and soil that can
produce bio diesel and we are learning a lot from our first experiences, producing and
commercializing bio diesel. The next slide shows that we have some different reasons to
produce bio diesel, to start this program in comparison with the ethanol. In 1975 basically
economics -- it was basically economic reasons which motivated the government to
introduce the ethanol in our matrix. Now the reasons for bio diesel today goes for the
economic reasons. We have higher crude-oil prices again, but we have a Brazilian
dependence -- a lower Brazilian dependence. We have some social reasons because we
need jobs and permanent settlements of families over the countryside. And also the
environmental benefits because we wanted to introduce another renewable and friendly
fuel. So we have some interesting points. And the regulatory framework for bio diesel in
the law that was signed in 2005, we established some minimum percentages to mix bio
diesel to diesel. We created a demand that makes perfect sense to the industry, and we
had a very good response from private investors. And we can say that the program is
doing very good. It is going fine. And we have a potential market in this period. From
2005-2007, 840 million liters per year and then 2,000. It is established by law. We have
from 2008-2012 a 2 percent mandatory with a market of 1 billion liters per year. And
from 2013 on we will have a 5 percent mandatory which will represent a sound market of
nearly 2.5 billion liters per year. Now we have a very good perspective for bio diesel, and
as our presidents same in lots of events we are going to anticipate for sure from 2013 the
V5 mixture which we are going to anticipate in 2010. The next slide shows a mechanism
that is very important for the bio diesel economy. We have created a social -- as we call a
social skills certificate. And how it works, if the bio diesel producer of was to have the
certificate it must first buy regularly a minimum amount of raw material that comes from
the household culture, small farmers according to the previously defined criteria. Two, it
must provide appropriate technical assistance, certificates, rural technicians, best
practices, et cetera. And third, it must sign a contract with each small farmers in terms
that must be regarded as proper by a rural workers union recognized by the government. I
am saying this because this mechanism of social fuel certificate is a very important
mechanism [ indiscernible ] if the producer has a social skills certificate it can be favored
by a detaxation of federal taxes in our federal taxation policy. The general value for bio
diesel taxation is 218 per cubic meter. And if the producer has a social fuel certificates -excuse me, if we have a business with will work, while in the north northeast in the
semiarid region without the social skills certificate it can be detaxation at 31%. But if it
eases the social skills certificate benefit it can be -- it can have a detestation from 68% to
100 percent depending on the region and a kind of raw material that is using. Next slide.
We can see in this map the producers that are settling. Commercial operation and
projects. Brazil. Forecast for December 2007. By the end of this year we will have 1
million created jobs and a capacity of production of 3 billion -- almost 3 billion liters of
bio diesel per year. An installed capacity of 3 billion liters. Nowadays we have authorized
bio diesel 19 plants and an authorization process of another 22 plants and five plants
under construction and 19 new projects totaling 65 plans of bio diesel by the end of this
year. Nowadays more than 419 -- 4,019 gas stations are selling bio diesel fuel regularly in
Brazil. Some final remarks because I think that we are finishing or I must finish. We have
a global challenge now where we are talking about energy production versus sewage
production as some profits of disaster announcing some profits as Fidel [ indiscernible ]
are predicting. And we can say that -- we must talk now about energy production and
food production, not versus. In Brazil we have a condition that I say that is a very special
because if we are talking about ethanol, the sugar cane area for ethanol we are talking
about 3 million hectares of sugar cane crops. This is very little if we compare it with all
the areas of Brazil. We are talking about less than 1 percent of our area. When we talk
about by a diesel for be two or P5 we are talking about 1.7-4.2 million hectares which is
less than 1 percent of our arable area. [ indiscernible ] in the near future is very good for
biofuels. We have the world growing demand, more rigorous environmental concerns and
an increase in international trade. We believe that we will have it happen very soon.
Some improvement on energies. New oil fields that can bring 6,000 liters per hectare
versus are traditional crops of 600 liters per hectare. And the ethanol new production
methods [ indiscernible ] and all of this mainly, the cellulose hydrolysis, this technology
will bring it for sure energy and food production, not versus. We are working very hard
as a government. We are working very hard and transforming and working to transform
biofuels and commodities. The commodities general characteristics, it betters the
possibility of delivery on due dates and the possibility of storage that can truly be worked
and be a reality for biofuels for ethanol and bio diesel. But it requires to be a common
product and negotiated in international environment. So it is to be established. We are
working very hard with the United States in order to achieve this market, and I think that
we are going to be well succeeded in this. The final point I am going to highlight in this
presentation is an exercise that we've made here with the necessary area for total
substitution and volume in petroleum. According to TB and FAL we have an exercise for
the total North American consumption of oil. And the necessary land for biofuels in order
to substitute this volume of petroleum. So in North America there is a consumption of 24
million -- more than 24 million barrels of the day, and we are going to substitute all of
this consumption in volume for biofuels. We are talking about 481 million hectares. And
we are talking the lower area. If we are talking about the land area available we are
talking about more than 519 million hectares. So we are going to need theoretically 81
percent of all agricultural land for biofuels in order to achieve this. We are considering in
this exercise an average production of 3,000 liters per hectare. And if we consider the
total land area of the region indications of North America talking about 24 percent of this
area. So what we are waiting for, we must -- we must think very deeply what we are
talking about if we are going to have a competition between food and energy production.
We are going to talk about America, this same exercise. We can think only 81 percent of
the area, and we can talk about Mexico. For example, 36 percent of the agricultural land
area necessary for biofuels in order to substitute all the oil consumption. Just a theoretical
exercise, but this puts -- this gives some relative data for this debate, I think. And this
slide, this last slide I think, we have some different scenarios for oil substitution which is
now a more real based exercise. So if we are talking about 5% or 20% or 50% or 100
percent substitution we have some different scenarios. And if we are talking about so soy
versus flour or castro we have a percentage of -- we have a percentage of necessary
portion area for biofuels. And if we are talking about sugar cane or palm oil or ethanol we
are going to need even less area in order to produce the biofuels that we need to substitute
the oil in significant basis. So in conclusion, biofuels do contribute to the energy security
and the improvement of environmental conditions. They do contribute the creation of
jobs and a common in rural areas and a truly promote economic development. Order to
achieve this the Government's own decisions are required. We must have public policies
and a global effort to watch the creation of biofuels. And we are doing this. We are
working very hard with the United States and the International Biofuels forum. And I
think that we are going to achieve in the near future our objective that is to have the
international market for the ethanol in the first place and then for bio diesel. So
government policies to exert strong influence on the climate for investment because they
can produce immediate impact cover cost risk and barriers to competition. We believe
that if we have more producers of ethanol -- the more producers we have the better. So I
think that this is our contribution. This final photo, I put this change is possible. We can
have better conditions and on the countryside. And with this biofuels can contribute a lot.
Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you, Marlin. It is about five minutes until three and I want to give some
time to our next speaker. We can't go too much past that. So I would like to introduce our
next speaker, Jose Eduardo, a researcher in the Federal University of Apollo. He is the
research leader for the group of [ indiscernible ], a University of Sao Paulo and Brazil.
The main activity is focusing on research and projects related to ag re products,
transportation and logistics. And I will let you begin, and I will apologize for having
asked Jose to condense his presentation. So we are making it available to everyone to
read in full. There are about 45 slides. He will be able to touch on the key points during
this presentation, and I will let Jose begin. Thank you.
Okay. Good afternoon. I will try to very quickly to my presentation. Marlin made a
complete presentation of the overview of alcohol and bio diesel production in Brazil. So I
think that we should go faster on the first slides. I will try to focus on the demand for [
indiscernible ] related to transportation, renewable fuel transportation. Okay. So my name
is Jose Eduardo, and I work as a project leader. And we are a [ indiscernible ]. Mainly
focused on logistics and transportation out agricultural products. I was invited for this
conference to talk about some perspective plans for renewable fuel transportation in
Brazil. So let's go. I think that the first part of my presentation, I will try to go very
quickly through the initial slides. And I will focus my presentation on talking about the
project that relates to renewable fuel transportation. Well, many things were said by Leo.
So I think that we can pass through the energy matrix. We don't need to talk about these.
It was presented by Leo. Okay. Next slide. I think that Leo make a good presentation
relating to biofuel and petrol fuel. And so I think that we should pass for these slides, too.
We can go. I would try to stop -- just a minute please. Please, should we go to the slide
12. Yes. Thanks. I think we can start to talk more about the alcohol production and fuel
transportation. And I think that the general idea that I would like to tell you is that, we are
waiting and expecting very quickly alcohol production in Brazil. And we are watching a
very quick move of our agriculture. So what is the main message that I would like to talk
about? It is that, at this quick expansion of out of production is forcing -- is moving our
agricultural culture. And we have to take account now of a huge production in new areas.
There is not enough infrastructure -- is their money? Too much studies relate that to
biofuels and renewable fuel transportation. And what has happened? We have a huge
volume of products being produced in new areas, and these new areas most of the time
are far from the main consumers. And this scenario is raising a lot of issues related to
transportation. So let's talk about these issues. So a lot of issues are rising for this reason.
We have now to move a huge volume of production to our sea parts competitively. And
we have many questions that are rising. And that is the research on transportation and
logistics, focusing and trying to answer these questions. So we need some [ indiscernible
] as the main transportation corridors. We need to get the best roads for alcohol and bio
diesel. When we want to know the best location of bio diesel plants we have to know the
best level for all stocks. We have to know about the possibilities of using pipelines for
alcohol transportation. It is important the stimulation of to agitation, the best roads for
renewable fuels and the location of all in both internal and external markets. And that is a
lot of questions other than [ indiscernible ]. The researchers and centers focus on
transportation and logistics and are looking forward to answer these questions. And we
are very concerned about the use of most of transportation relative to product
transportation. In Brazil it is more common, the use of truck transportation. It is quite
dominant, this mode of transport. As we have seen on the other side's, the production of
renewable fuels mainly is going faster in the big centers of consumption. It is going far
from the main seaport. So we are very concerned about the use of punitive those of
transportation. We need more efficient situations. Like the real transportation, pipeline
transportation and the use of [ indiscernible ] for transportation -- alcohol and renewable
fuel transportation. So I will share with you the main corridors for renewable fuels that
have been focused on. And we will discuss them. This map shows the main alcohol
transportation corridors. As I have said, we are concerned about the use of a pipeline for
alcohol transportation. There are two important plans that are taking place in Brazil. They
are related to use of the pipelines for alcohol transportation. So there is a pipeline to start
to use [ indiscernible ] connecting three different ports. Another corridor of alcohol
transportation refers to this pipeline connecting [ indiscernible ], passing through [
indiscernible ] and going through the refinery of [ indiscernible ]. And also in addition to
these alternatives has been analyzing the use of waterways to give support to for the all
production in [ indiscernible ]. And the production originated in the south of [
indiscernible ]. So the use of the river for all transportation by barge, it is a great potential
alternative to give support and to offer a cooperative way to put this alcohol on our
seaport. And this is the schedule for the construction of this infrastructure. So the first
pipeline that I have told you this plans to take place in 2010, and the other infrastructure
will make use of the [ indiscernible ] waterway which is planned to take place in 2011.
And the pipeline connecting [ indiscernible ], passing through a [ indiscernible ] and
going through a [ indiscernible ] is scheduled to take place in 2009. And there is another
important pipeline that will connect [ indiscernible ] to the refinery which is planned to
take place in 2015. Other important infrastructure that has been the focus of these studies
of transportation in Brazil. So I put here the map of the existing railway and the
infrastructure or the railway map will be an alternative to move the production of the
main states to our seaports and to the consumer markets. And I would like just to point
here some important alternatives. [ indiscernible ]. That is the use of [ indiscernible ]
railway that could transport the alcohol production of [ indiscernible ]. We have the [
indiscernible ] railway that will be an important alternative for the transportation of all
produced in [ indiscernible ]. We have other important alternatives relative to FCA
railway. And the FCA railway will be for the transportation arising in the state of [
indiscernible ]. And other alternatives that are very importance are the new railway called
[ indiscernible ] that is being constructed that will be another important alternative for
alcohol transportation. And we have here to what alternatives that using railways for the
transportation of renewable fuels. Relative to the sea ports have been analyzed for the
exportation of alcohol the main seaports that are used currently is the port of [
indiscernible ] and the seaport of paranormal. And the other potential seaports that could
be used to give support for all exports is the seaport of [ indiscernible ]. Currently the
most important seaport used by all transportation is the sea port of Santos and the seaport
of the Paranagua. And almost 7% of all exports moves through [ indiscernible ], and
around 15 -- I'm sorry 15% of alcohol goes through Paranagua. So I tried to make a very
quick presentation, and I hope that was possible as information important for you. I am
available for questions and for suggestions. Make yourself to make me questions.
Thank you, Jose. I applaud your ability to on-the-fly condense and convey the key points
of the presentation. Since we are at a point where we do need to start to bring this to a
conclusion, I would like to focus the remaining few minutes on next steps. I think there
are probably a large number of questions and some outstanding conversations that would
naturally evolves from the presentation that we have had today. I would like to suggest
that those occur via e-mail, and we will make sure that there is an e-mail that has
everyone's address on it so that we can use that for information exchange and continuing
the discussion. And we should also probably based upon some of the comments we
received sent in through the chat system -- it looks like there is a value in setting another
one of these web / teleconferences and whether that is in two weeks or three weeks are if
we have to push it up to four weeks, we would like to receive some feedback on that. We
would like to keep the momentum going on this. I know there have been suggestions on
bring this group together. I will comment that outside of the UTC program here in the
U.S. The grantees that are working in the alternative fuel area whether it is hydrogen are
biofuel that are funded by my group are already meeting. We have about a dozen of last,
universities and researchers that are meeting. And based on this forum I think there is an
opportunity to open that up to the other UTC universities and expand that group. So I will
suggest that or take that down for note. I would like to then take a couple minutes now
and see if anyone else has any comments. We will start with here in the U.S., and then
open it up to comments in Brazil. Before people may have to depart, I would like to thank
everyone for their time and effort and participation. I think this was very productive and
set a foundation for future action. So with that, any comments from the U.S.? Presenters
or participants?
This is Dave from Michigan Tech. Can you hear me?
Yes.
I have maybe a comment that might be responded by the Brazilians. It seems like the
main focus of the Brazilian presenters was on bio rather than hydrogen and I was just
curious as to whether when moving forward with any kind of training programs we might
decide at the outset to focus on biomass as opposed to hydrogen.
This is [ indiscernible ]. I understood that this was going to be a biofuel focus endeavor.
Not necessarily to exclude hydrogen as it might tie into biomass, but certainly a biomass
biofuel focus effort.
Okay. Good. That is good information for me. Thank you.
Okay. Any comments from our colleagues in Brazil?
Yes. I am very grateful for the opportunity, and I think that this kind of event is very
important to share more information about the explosion of information relative to
renewable fuels. And we are very grateful for this opportunity. Thanks.
Thank you. Any last comments from anyone else on the line? Okay. Hearing none, I will
bring this to a conclusion. Again, please e-mail in a suggested set of dates that might
work for the next follow-on webinar. I would like to reserve that, not for presentation, but
for discussions on some of the key topics that we have heard. We will endeavor in the
meantime to get the minutes and notes from this meeting out ahead of that webinar or
next teleconference as a frame of reference. I would encourage everyone to collect their
thoughts continued the discussion on how we can coordinate and perhaps share some
lessons learned and resources in addressing this global area of need. So again, thank you
very much and I look forward to speaking with everyone again in the next several weeks.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Please feel free to sign off.
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