Wood Bio Summary

Nothing To Waste

Most of you probably read some of the report in our June issue on the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo held in Atlanta back in early April. That article mostly delved into the presentations of the eight keynoters. But given the amount of information that spewed forth from the dozens of technical presentations during the conference, we felt we would be negligent if we didn’t offer another report with some detail on those presentations.

And so that’s what we’ve done on pages 18-27 of this issue. One of our leading editors, Dan Shell, volunteered for the task of plowing through and digesting the hundreds and hundreds of powerpoint slides from these presentations and putting together about a 2,800 word report.

Perhaps because they don’t know how to go about it, some conferences do a poor job of passing onto the industry at large the latest revelations from their own conference. This is rather like shooting yourself in the foot. They spend countless months putting together the presenters and the agenda, and then when it’s over they put it all on a conference proceedings site online, accessible only by those who attended the conference. We do the same thing with our Wood Bioenergy Conference, but let’s face it, people don’t have a lot of time to churn through dozens and dozens of powerpoint presentations and interpret what the graphics are trying to reveal.

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From Left: David (DK) Knight, Co-Publisher/Executive Editor; David Abbott, Senior Associate Editor; Dan Shell, Managing Editor; Jessica Johnson, Associate Editor; Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief

So we take it another step, and pull together a summary report of these presentations for our entire domestic and international readership. There’s nothing like being at the conference in person, but at least somebody might “glean a few nuggets” by reading the article in this issue. We have an advantage in being able to do this because Wood Bioenergy magazine is the media host and one of the organizers of the event.

As the ones who solicit the speakers and presentations, we are always amazed when it’s all over by how much technical information was delivered over the course of a very short time. While the conference is going on, obviously we have to get caught up in the logistics of the thing—making sure the audio-visual system works properly; that the upcoming speakers have been spotted; that there are enough seats in the room; that our introductory remarks are ready; bouncing from meeting room to meeting room. So we don’t really get to appreciate what was exchanged during the conference until we’re involved in preparing the proceedings afterward. And then we find ourselves saying over and over, “Wow, this is really good stuff.” It’s that concern of losing this “good stuff” to the whims of cyberspace that prompts us to pound it home in print the old-fashioned way.

Dan’s article reviews the presentations on dust control and safety, fire prevention, material handling, drying efficiencies, modernized operational performance, project planning and air emissions control.

It’ll only take you 15 minutes to read, and when you’re done you’ll be as informed, if not more so, than the next person.