Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Monday, September 19, 2005 08:24 Terry Walker began the meeting with 24 attending. Attendees were introduced, followed by a welcome by Roland Mote, administrative advisor. If S-1007 is to continue, members need to make a decision at this meeting and select a rewrite subcommittee. A draft rewrite will be needed at the 2006 meeting. Mote will then establish a development committee which will operate for two years until a new committee is established. Draft report should be about 3 pages and describe problems to be addressed by the committee. The development committee is a bridging mechanism; S-1007 would continue to operate. Objectives can be revised, but S-1007 has to terminate and a new number issued. 08:35 Walker reviewed the agenda and gave a project overview. A rewrite subcommittee will be formed at the meeting. Objectives were reviewed. Station reports should be brief so the S-1007 annual report can be produced easily. Walker asked station reports be 1 to 2 pages, excepting list of publications. Publications should be relevant to S-1007 objectives; format will be sent to the committee. 08:49 Mark Peters, economist, NRCS, Biomass R&D Initiative. DOE and USDA personnel were pleased with reports given by reviewers. Reports helped justify continuance of the Initiative. Peters presented background on USDAs Biomass R&D Initiative. 09:17 Thomas Klindt, Dean of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, director of experiment station, University of Tennessee gave a presentation about the Sun Grant Initiative. 09:28 Kelly Tiller, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, presented government regulations that affect demand for biodiesel and ethanol. 09:55 Break 10:30 Meeting reconvened by Walker and station reports given (AR, CA, HI, IL, KY, LA, MN, MI, MS). 01:05 Tours of Plant Biotechnology Research and Forestry Products Research Centers. 03:05 Station reports resumed (MT, NE, ND, OR, OK). 04:23 Walker led discussion of rewrite of S-1007. One committee deliverable could be creation of vision papers or white papers relating to bioproduct issues. A subcommittee will meet this evening and report tomorrow: Obj. 1: Sohkansanj and Womac; Obj. 2: Huhnke, Penner, Hanna; Obj. 3, Chen, Ruan; Obj. 4, Carrier, Walker; Obj. 5, Tao and Worden. Objectives could be rewritten, but noted that current objectives resulted from lengthy discussion. Current objectives were agreeable to most members at the committees origin. Tao is organizing the meeting. 04:58 Station reports resumed (IN, SC, SD, TN, WI). Meeting adjourned at 5:49. Tuesday, September 20, 2005 08:12 Walker started the meeting with 25 attending and reviewed the agenda. Minutes from 04 meeting were approved. Meeting locations were discussed. For 2006, the meeting will be in the Minneapolis area; in 2007 it will be in Peoria. For 2008, may be good to return to the Southern region after being in the Midwest for 06 and 07. Motion was approved to have 2008 meeting in Washington, DC. Secretary for 2006 meeting will be Carrier (AR). Ruan will find potential tours and handle meeting logistics. Extended tour could be conducted the day before the committee meeting; tour of Nature Works, 3M discussed as possibilities. 2006 meeting dates: late September. We will meet near the same date next year unless there are major conflicts. 08:31 Presentation of Objectives by rewrite committee. Sohkansanj. Obj. 1. Develop knowledge and technologies that make the uninterrupted supply of low cost high quality biomass possible. This would: create confidence in biomass as a reliable feedstock, create technologies for a profitable business in biomass supply ventures, ensure adequate return to producers and ensure safety and health of biomass operations. This will cover collection, storage, densification, particle size reduction etc. 08:39 Hanna. Obj. 2. (divided into ethanol and biodiesel) Biodiesel. Other biofuels would be included along with lubricants. For biodiesel, Hanna has a start on a white paper. Paper could be used for project rewrite. MT and ND have been contacted already to work on this effort. MS may be helping. 08:44 Penner. Obj. 2. Ethanol. Presented draft objective that would not compete with large groups already working in this area. Will include starch to ethanol as well as cellulose to ethanol work. AR, IL, KY, OK, FL, SD are to be involved. 08:48 Ruan. Obj. 3. Biomaterials. SD, LA involved. 08:52 Carrier. Obj. 4. Biobased Chemicals. 1. value added prior to energy conversion (ex: phytochemicals). 2. valued added after (DDGS). 3. fermentations top 30, top 12. A lot of effort on 1 and 2 could increase effort on 3. 1 and 2 may focus on higher value but lower volume. Could divide into coproducts and ethanol efforts. Collaborators: NE, MN, SC, SD, OK, OR, others involved with fermentation. 08:58 Worden. Obj. 5. Education. Expertise is not focused at a single station, so someone wanting training could not go to just one location. Internet education would provide access to expertise represented by the committee. 1) Need to have picture of industrys desire for training. As a group, come up with a survey to get industry response. 2) White papers to increase awareness of the committee objectives; ways to improve education on issues related to bioproducts; Worden has a draft of paper started on educational issues and needs. Could offer a short course for industry in connection with S-1007 meeting. 09:09 Discussion of rewrite subcommittee continued. Tao requested a paragraph from each member and interest area within one week of this meeting. Integrated systems could possibly be emphasized more in the revised objectives. Transesterification is not mentioned in the current document. 09:30 Meeting adjourned for travel and tour of ORNL.

Accomplishment Summary: Group progress reports completed for each objective; 94 total publications generated; more than 11 grant applications submitted; 40 contributing state projects; Objectives in rank order of activity = 2, 4, 3, 1, 5. The accomplishments listed for S1007 group initiatives based on milestones set for the five objectives are summarized in Table 1. The Group Activity Rank is based on the four milestones including completion of the annual progress report, publications, number of known grant applications from group members and number of state project involvement stated in the progress report results. A total of 94 publications, more than 11 grant applications, and 40 state project results were reported in the progress report. Based primarily on publications and state project involvement, Objectives 2, 3 and 4 had the most involvement from committee members with Objective 1 still having substantial interest, but little activity was reported for Objective 5 even though most members felt that the educational aspects were still a vital role for this committee. Perhaps increased activity in this area will result from research and educational findings based on the focus areas in the first four objectives throughout the initial 6-year term of the Project S1007. With recent incentives for bioenergy, solar energy and hydrogen initiatives stated in the 2005 congressional energy bill, the S1007 group appears to be on target for researching the appropriate areas that would ultimately begin the process of energy diversification and reduction of dependency on foreign oil, particularly in the areas of biobased, renewable fuels. Within the past year, a substantial increase in the distribution of bioethanol (in the form of E85) and biodiesel (in the form of B20) as well as a marked increase in hybrid automobile sales in the US, have demonstrated a direct public interest in these alternatives, in part as a response to the rapid increase in fuel and oil prices. Cargill-Dow has released several products on the market containing polylactic acid (PLA) in the form of packaging materials that is a result of research into new biodegradable, biobased materials related to Objective 3. Educational and promotional incentives have played a recent role nationally with an example of BioWillie biodiesel fuel intended to impact the trucking industry with promotion by the popular country singer and biofuel investor, Willie Nelson. Greater impact in the education of US citizens and the global market on sustainable and renewable energy and materials is projected to enable greater markets for these newly researched biobased materials. The S1007 group plans to modify the objectives, initiatives and milestones for the next term of this project in the final year of this term based on accomplishments and impacts summarized at the end of the term.