Aviation biofuels take center stage at biomass energy group meeting

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Research opportunities to extend biofuels beyond E85 and biodiesel and into the aviation sector will be up for discuss-ion on Jan. 8 at an In-diana Biomass Energy Working Group meeting.

The meeting, hosted by Purdue Extension, is open to the public and will include present-ations from Purdue Uni-versity biofuels and av-iation experts.

It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Beck Agricultural Center at Purdue's Agronomy Cen-ter for Research and Ed-ucation at 4540 U.S. Route 52 in West La-fayette.

"Opportunities for biomass feedstocks are ev-olving for creating bio-fuels to be used in the aviation industry, and there has been quite a push for that research at Purdue," said Chad Mar-tin, Purdue Extension renewable energy spec-ialist.

"When most people think of biofuels they think of E85 and bio-diesel, so we want to bring an awareness to Indiana about the poss-ibilities with aviation."

Presenters will be Wally Tyner, Purdue Ex-tension agricultural ec-onomist, who will give a Renewable Fuels Stand-ard and post-election policy update, and Maureen McCann of the Purdue Energy Center, who will discuss Purdue research efforts in biofuels development and give an overview of C3Bio, a biofuels research organiz-ation in Purdue's Discov-ery Park.

A representative of Purdue's Aviation Tech-nology department will discuss ongoing work in aviation biofuels.

Members of the Ohio BioProducts Institute al-so will attend.

Meeting registration is $25 per person and in-cludes lunch. Registra-tion is available online through Purdue Exten-sion's The Education Store at https://mdc.itap. purdue.edu/item.asp? item_numberCW-ABE-1#.UMoZYo7_QyE and is due by Jan. 4.

Sponsors are Purdue Extension, the Indiana Office of Energy Develop-ment, the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture's Bioenergy CAP and USDA Rural Develop-ment.

The Indiana Biomass Energy Working Group is an open organization.

Members include representatives of industry, state and federal government, trade organiza-tions, universities and interested citizens.

The group plans ed-ucational programming and networking events to help promote the growth of Indiana's renewable energy industry.