• Bob King, Founder & President, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies
  

  Our 25-Year Journey to a High-Efficiency, Zero Waste Plant Design
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  Established in 1995, few companies and individuals have had the impact on this industry as Pacific Biodiesel and its founding couple, Bob and Kelly King. With celebrity backing, Pacific Biodiesel made biodiesel sexy. Once a process technology-focused company that built 13 plants in Hawaii, Japan, Alaska and on the U.S. mainland, Pacific Biodiesel disbanded its construction division and went back to its roots, focusing on local sustainability and community-based recycling, agriculture and biodiesel production in Hawaii. Pacific Biodiesel’s biodiesel manufacturing facility on the Big Island is a culmination of decades of technical experience and new innovations to process lower-quality feedstock with high efficiency and zero waste. Bob King will take attendees through the learning curve of biodiesel process design from the nascent days of the industry through advanced techniques employed today.

Whether constructing greenfield biodiesel projects, incrementally expanding existing capacity, retrofitting idled and underperforming facilities, or integrating biodiesel processing with ethanol plants, new and emerging biodiesel production technologies are ready to fit the bill. This panel features promising alternative approaches to biodiesel manufacturing designed to optimize production through improving efficiencies and yield while reducing capex and opex costs, while providing expert guidance on how to evaluate new technologies.

• Rudy Pruszko, Owner, Pruszko Consulting
  How to Evaluate New Technologies
• Armin Brandner, Product Director, Green Chemicals & Fuels Product Line, Air Liquide Engineering & Construction
  Supercritical Biodiesel
• Tom Slunecka, CEO, Plasma Blue
  Plasma Blue: A Gamechanger in Transesterification

Many operating biodiesel plants can improve their output and performance. Sometimes all it takes is a third-party review of process designs, the trained eye of process technology providers with decades of experience, or maybe an alternative catalyst or a simple yet effective upgrade. Hear from the experts about a variety of ways biodiesel manufacturers can optimize their existing production assets.

• Hermann Stockinger, Vice President of Global Sales, BDI-BioEnergy International
  The Evolution of Biodiesel Technology
• Bill Morphew, Global Commercial Director – Liquids Segment, Crown Americas
  ACRE Upgrade and Solid Catalyst Esterification
• Ernie Pollitzer, Owner, Clean Energy Consultants
  Biodiesel Production Improvement Study

Biodiesel producers have long relied on adsorbents for feedstock pretreatment and fuel posttreatment in order to remove contaminants and meet or exceed quality specifications. Pretreatment demands for the growing renewable diesel sector are even greater, as just trace amounts of certain contaminants can have costly effects on expensive hydrotreater catalysts. This panel will leave attendees with all they need to know about adsorbent offerings, applications and emerging approaches for biodiesel and renewable diesel producers.

• John McNichol, Market Development Manager, PQ Corp.
  Synthetic Silica Adsorbents for Biodiesel Pre and Posttreatment and Renewable Diesel Pretreatment
• Rich Cairncross, Senior Research Engineer, Environmental Fuel Research LLC
  Desulfurization of Biodiesel: What Works and What Doesn’t
• Brian Cooke, Technical Manager, Clariant Corp.
  Absorptive Removal of Contaminants from Fats and Oils for Biofuels Production
• Stan Huddleston, Technical Service Manager, W.R. Grace & Co.
  Role of Synthetic Amorphous Silica in Biodiesel Feedstock Purification and Posttreatment

Solvent technologies, energy optimization and process integration are the focuses of this panel, which lies at the nexus of new technologies and improving existing process designs. Be sure not to miss this fast-moving, jampacked session, which will leave producers with plenty of considerations for taking their biodiesel manufacturing to the next level.

• Somnath Shinde, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Sandia National Laboratories
  The Lactate and Fusel Alcohol Platform: Biofuels Production, and Biochemical Upgrading to Superior Performance Biodiesel
• Marcelo Cantele, USFC/TransferTech
  Rational Integration of Conventional and Enzymatic Routes in Large-scale Biodiesel Production

Renewable diesel is on the rise, and although many large-scale biorefineries are being established by well-known petroleum companies, there is another side to this growing market. Meet hydrotreating process technology providers and an EPC contractor making flexible, cost-effective, scalable options available, and gain perspective on this exciting market through an historical account.

• Larry Sullivan, Professor, Trident Technical College
  Evolution of Biodiesel and Related Technologies: A 20-Year Perspective
• Matthew Clingerman, Director of Technology, Sulzer GTC Technology US
  Flexible and Cost-effective Hydrotreating Technology for Renewable Diesel Production
• Michele Rubino, Principal, 3Peaks Consulting
  Renewable Diesel Scaled to Your Feedstock

Some of the biggest names in biodiesel process design are leveraging their decades of experience to not only improve biodiesel pretreatment technologies as the industry increasingly relies on lower-cost, lower-quality feedstock, but also to provide much-needed pretreatment services to the fast-growing renewable diesel sector. Learn the latest developments in pretreatment from well-established players and an emerging startup.

• Blake Hendrix, President & CEO, Desmet Ballestra North America
  Processing Technologies for Pretreatment of HVO/HEFA Feedstocks
• Patrick Harrington, Global Technical Sales Manager – Liquids Segment, Crown Americas
  Maximizing Contaminant Removal from Waste Feedstocks
• Christine Riedl, Technical Sales Manager, BDI-BioEnergy International
  Pretreating Waste-based Feedstock for Nearly 25 Years
• Tara Mancini, President, LetzBiofuels
  Up to 100 Percent FFA Pretreatment System for Biodiesel

Steps taken—or not taken—at the backend of a biodiesel plant can have profound implications on quality, marketability and value of fuel and coproducts. Whether it’s distillation of biodiesel and glycerin, upgrading the highly versatile glycerin molecule to new chemicals, or simply gaining a better understanding of the detrimental effects incomplete processing can have on fuel quality, this final panel will strike a delicate balance between technical considerations and practical solutions.

• Jay M. Railey, PE, President, Technology Development Corporation & Recovery Technologies Corporation
  Post-Distillation of Biodiesel: Lab Data and Industrial Practice
• Ken Brown, CEO, Smisson-Mathis Energy LLC
  Brown Grease to Biodiesel Production and Novel Distillation for Sulfur Removal
• Richard Heiden, Chief Science & Technology Officer, R.W. Heiden Associates
  Unexpected Formation of Saturated Monoglycerides, Glycerol and Steryl Glucoside Deposits in Biodiesel Fuels