By Brad Haire
University of Georgia
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue will welcome participants July 31 at 8 a.m. and introduce keynote speaker Ron Fagen, president and CEO of Minnesota-based Fagen, Inc., the country’s leading ethanol plant construction company. State and federal legislators also will hold a roundtable discussion on current and pending bioenergy policy during the conference.
Breakout sessions will focus on Southeastern crops and forestry products that can be used for energy. A trade show will spotlight many bioenergy products, including many flex-fuel vehicles from all major manufacturers.
“The conference program will cover all sectors of the bioenergy industry, but will focus primarily on biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel,” said Craig Kvien, a conference organizer and chair of the University of Georgia Nationally Environmentally Sound Production Laboratory in Tifton.
UGA chaired the conference’s voluntary planning committee, which had representatives from across the Southeast. “We want to promote the use of bioenergy and its commercialization within the Southeast,” Kvien said.
Registration before July 16 is $175. It’s $225 after. To learn more, see a detailed program or register visit the Website www.sebioenergy.org. Or call (229) 386-7274.
More than 650 people from across the country and world attended the Georgia Bioenergy Conference in Tifton last summer.