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Dear
Colleagues of the Global Scientific Biomass
Community,
Biomass is a raw material with a multitude of
applications, suitable to replace fossil resources, for use both as
an energy source as well as for material
utilization.
For a sustainable energy supply, biomass is
indispensable; but it is also limited, is not sufficient for all
applications, and it ranks in priority after food and
feed.
Biomass technology has changed from an ancient
but newly discovered technology to a serious, modern form of supply
for the society of today and tomorrow, a key element of
sustainability and a significant economic factor.
Thus
the tasks of the biomass community include finding solutions to
overcome the competition between the different methods of
utilization, identifying conversion paths with the highest degree of
sustainability and bringing together bioenergy concepts with other
renewable energies. These tasks, in their full spectrum, also will
be reflected in the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
and its motto: “Setting the course for a biobased
economy”.
The variety of topics linked to these tasks
is manifold, leading to the horizontal approach of the
Conference, which is typical for the biomass sector and essential for
finding concepts with a holistic background. Nevertheless the problems to
be solved need highly sophisticated approaches. This evokes the
need for dedicated events with a high degree of thematical
profundity. This is the reason why we decided to complement the
proven horizontal concept of the Conference with new
vertically-oriented elements dedicated to the following topics:
“Biogas Upgrading and Grid Injection”, “Biogas goes Europe”,
“Biowaste to Energy” and “Bioenergy in Smart
Grids”.
With
this “Conference-in-Conference” concept, we enable the delegates to
gather information on a special topic presented by selected experts
in a very condensed form and discuss such with the essential
stakeholders during the course of only one day.
It is
our great pleasure to welcome the global biomass community in June
2012 to the marvelous City of Milan, which is the capital of
Lombardy, the heart of Italy’s bioenergy industry. The city will
also host the World Expo 2015 with the theme: “Feeding the Planet,
Energy for Life”, that obviously brings our challenge to the point
and will mobilize the region’s efforts towards achieving our
targets. I look forward to welcoming you to the 20th European
Biomass Conference and Exhibition from 18th - 22nd June 2012. Let us
face the challenge and confront together one of the greatest tasks
of our century: the transformation towards sustainability. Let us
together set the course for a biobased
economy!
Yours sincerely,
Dr.-Ing. B. Krautkremer
Fraunhofer Institute
IWES
Head of Bioenergy System Technology
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