The last day, only half a day, was characterized by the most substantive presentations of the conference. It began with a rough start, Gunnar and I were trying to recover from the night before as we wandered down to the cafeteria. Breakfast was good and we found our seats at the first presentation of the day. It was a talk by Maria “girl Mark” Alovert on a variety of unconnected technologies she is currently promoting, including the burning of glycerin for energy, ethanol based biodiesel, and acid esterificaiton. Her talk was fast-paced and informative. For the next talk I listened to Jason Burrough of DieselGreen Fuels and other in-the-know attendees explain the complex world of permitting and taxes in regards to biodiesel and waste vegetable oil. It was by far the most useful talk for people moving from the shadows into the legitimate world of fuel production. Lunch came and we ate quickly because our ride, a saint of a man, Donovan needed to get us going so we could get to the airport on time. As with my ride in, I rode out with BioLyle next to me and as we unloaded at the airport we all said goodbye and went on our way. Six hours later and two lost hours to timezones and we would be back in ‘The Burgh.’

Today was another full day of talks. I started out the day learning about options for Glycerol from a young bunch of students from Dickinson College followed by waste oil filtration and solar heating. Lunch is a nice time to think about what you have seen and discuss new ideas with other conference goers. It is amazing the range of people here, some are super-activists looking to change the entire landscape of fuels in America while others are staunch business people exploring the potential profit to made in the biodiesel industries. We had breakout sessions after lunch which were topic based discussions moderated by savvy individuals. I went to the discussion on ethics. I went to seed crushing by Piedmont’s Matt Rudolph followed by a fantastic presentation by Greg Austic on the new technologies being explored down in North Carolina. After going to dinner with a big group of folks there was a party at a house on campus. Folks hung out and had a good time, many still talking about biodiesel and others just having a good time. Musical instruments were passed around and we were entertained by live music.

The first day of the conference began with casual conversation as technology issues were addressed. Powerpoint didn’t seem quite so integral. When you get enough people together trying to positively address common issues it doesn’t take much to initiate discussion. Logistics were sorted out and people shuffled around trying to figure out where they needed to be for the first session. Up to three presentations are available for each block of time so everyone can find something they’re into. The campus itself is beautiful, settled down between the rising foothills on the east side of the Rockies. Walking around the small campus is easy and provides additional time to chat with other biodiesel folks. The town is very accessible with several restaurants, bars, spas and shops. I ended up deciding on sushi with a few other folks and we were directed down the road, little did we know it was two miles. We had plenty to discuss, especially from the talk on algal-derived fuels by Dr. Al Darzins from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) which is only about a mile out from the School of Mines. The people and the beer are great and the discussions productive.

Just uploaded: Pictures from our display showing the life cycles of 4 fuels (petroleum, biodiesel, ethanol, and vegetable oil) at Hot House 2007; GTECH’s sunflower field at the LTV Steel brown-field in Hazelwood; and pictures of setting up our new office in the Construction Junction building in the East End.

http://picasaweb.google.com/steelcitybiofuels