Friends, As you know, the California Biodiesel Alliance introduced SB 1574 to protect California’s right to use biodiesel. We were forced to take many last-minute amendments to the bill in the legislative process, and once the dust settled, it became clear that the bill as amended would do more harm to the biodiesel industry than good. For example, the bill only provided partial protection to USTs currently storing biodiesel and prohibited converting more USTs to biodiesel and any new USTs for biodiesel, in effect banning all new biodiesel tanks in California. That is obviously an unacceptable “solution.”
As a result, CBA requested that the Governor veto the bill and direct the state’s regulatory agencies to work toward a better solution for biodiesel. We are happy to report success, which you can learn about in detail at
http://gov.ca.gov/pdf/press/SB1574_Florez_Veto_Message.pdf.
Our focus now is on working closely with the Governor’s staff and key players, including Cal EPA, Water Board, and ARB. These efforts to find a solution to the UST issue will be critical to the future of biodiesel in California and will help set standards for biodiesel use nationwide.
CBA is forming a Biodiesel UST Users Working Group. We will be following up with those of you who have been threatened by, or suffered directly from, the inappropriate shutting down of biodiesel in USTs to urge your participation.
Because of your extremely responsive and time-sensitive involvement in this issue in recent months, we have introduced Sacramento to a strong statewide network of support for biodiesel from industry, municipalities, and consumers.
Thank you so much, and we look forward to working with you on this urgent issue going forward!
Sincerely,Celia DuBose forEric Bowen, ChairmanCalifornia Biodiesel Alliance
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The Technological Development Unit (UDT, Unidad de Desarrollo Tecnológico) of the University of Concepcion, Chile, and the Chilean Technical Association of Pulp and Paper (ATCP-Chile) have the pleasure to announce the “Second Latin American Congress on Biorefineries: Materials and Energy” to be held on May 4th, 5th and 6th, 2009 in Termas de Chillan, Chile.
The 20th century was ruled by oil, which is the source not only of transportation fuels but also of many products that are omnipresent in every field of human endeavor. In view of the inevitable increases in the price of oil because of its gradual and inexorable depletion, current oil refineries will increasingly give way to the “biorefineries” of the future, which – based on renewable agricultural and forest products - will continue to produce the energy and the materials that society will require in the 21st century and beyond.
The Congress offers a forum to national and foreign researchers and experts for a productive debate on scientific and engineering advances in the use of forest biomass as a source of fuels, new materials and chemical products, as well as a stimulating discussion on the challenges and opportunities for regional, national and Latin American cooperation in these endeavors.
Topics included within the scope of this Congress:
1. Chemical transformation: Fermentation of sugars; anaerobic digestión of biomass residues to obtain bioethanol or biogas; pretreatments; development of processes; purification and conditioning of products.
2. Thermochemical transformation: Solid, liquid and gaseous products of thermochemical degradation of lignocellulosic feedstocks; pyrolysis and gasification for fuels and chemical products of commercial interest.
3. Physical transformation: Separation of forest biomass components through new technologies and transformation into products of commercial interest; preparation, conditioning and densification of biomass to facilitate transport, storage, processing and/or homogeneity of composition.
The Congress will be held in Termas de Chillan, a prime tourist attraction located in the Bio Bio region just 194 kilometers (120.5 miles) east of the city of Concepcion.
For more information please visit our website www.bio-refinerias.cl or www.udt.cl, or send an e-mail to crfuentes@udec.cl
If possible, please publish this information on their websites.
Unidad de Desarrollo Tecnológico
Universidad de Concepción
Fono: (56-041)2747438
www.bio-refinerias.cl
www.udt.cl
For any of you doing research in biodiesel fuels, I'm working with a professional online community, Epernicus (www.Epernicus.com), which will enable you to share your research with other scientists. It's already got close to 10,000 scientists at more than 1,800 institutions in 67 countries. Epernicus is not just in academia, but also in private industry and government institutions. By the way, it's free.
You can save a lot of time and effort tracking down scientists who could share information you need. Think of it as kind of a Facebook or LinkedIn for scientists.
Sherry Alpert
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