BFN AGM
Day 1
It is a sunny day. I woke up at 5.45am and felt hungry. There were nothing for me to eat. So I decided to get up and slack on my laptop. I ate my oat at about 6:30am and took a shower. 7:30 am, I was downstair, filling my stomach with delicious breakfast.
8:30am to 9:25am Welcome Remarks
1. CEO of BFN Donald Smith
He said Network's Premise is to satisfy the urgen need to develop sustainable and renewable energy sources from non-food materials. He called for proposal for new feedstocks which is not food and social, economic, environmental sustainability (SEES) proposal as well.
2. A member of the BFN director board Esteban Chornet
To make the biofuel production sustainable, we have to have many small immediate plants and a central depot/biorefinery plant to allow the most economic biofuel production
3. Secretary of BFN Lisa
"Looking for staff and funding is the fun of my job."
It is time to do a focused research and integrate all the research to focus on a set of defined goals, especially the SEES theme.
The most relevant research is one which combined industrial objectives and scientific understanding. Dr. S said that is exactly what my project is.
4. Jorin Mamen
Jorin's speech is so engaging. I totally focused on listening to his speech without making any notes. Now I forgot about what he said. :( That is so sad for me.
10:40am - 12:35pm
Dr S assigned me, Hamid and Asal to different meetings at different platforms. I got the central platform meeting. Dr S made me to present 3 slides before the meeting. So I embraced myself and tried to present what I know. I stammered but I got through it.
For other researchers in Central Platform, they presented mostly about pyrolysis bio-oil.
One interesting one is about Red Mud -- an alkali waste product of aluminum extraction (Bayce) process, which consist of Fe2O3, Al2O3, SiO2, and other oxide of metals. Dr Marcel Schiaf said that the red mud can be used to neutralize acidic pyrolysis bio-oil. Red mud itself will be partially reduced to simpler iron/titanium ore and bio-oil is activated to a neutral clear organic liquid.
1:30-2:30pm
Professor in Chemical Engineering Dept of UQTR
Described a reactor mobile to produce pyrolysis bio-oil.
His final messages are
1. Techno-economic studies are MANDATORY before implementing any biofuel refinery
2. Proper use of biomass will be a key Canadian asset in the future due to the size in forest residue available to us
3. Cost is always a problem, but when crude oil is high in price, biofuel will be attractive. Also, climate change is a good driver for the biofuel research, but it is not everything.
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