Feature
Story
Bioenergy Up Close
and Personal:
Going from know-how
to show-how
Robert D. Smith, PE, Vice President, RMF Engineering Inc.
In August 2007, representatives from
the Swedish Bioenergy Association
(SVEBIO) came to Washington, D.C.,
on an outreach and fact-finding mission
to assess the market potential for biomass
fuels in the United States. The delegation
extended IDEA an invitation to attend the
World Bioenergy Conference in Jönköping,
Sweden, May 27-29, 2008. The meeting
would draw more than 1,100 attendees
from nearly 60 different countries to
discuss new ideas and practical applications of renewable energy.
ference in Sweden, crude oil had already
doubled in price and U.S. interest in biofuels had perked up.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” said a
well-wisher from the U.S. as I prepared
to go to Sweden for the conference. “Just
because they make it look easy to get
away from petroleum doesn’t mean it
will fly here.”
Countries such as Sweden have been
Countries such as Sweden have
been under not only economic
pressure but political mandate to
be more innovative when it
comes to energy consumption
and the environment.
IDEA accepted the invitation to the
event, billed as “Taking You From Know-How to Show-How,” packed with field
excursions to full-scale bioenergy applications. Monica Westerlund, District
Energy magazine’s executive editor, and
I, as IDEA chair, represented the association. During the nine months between
the meeting in Washington and the con-
SVEBIO staff were instrumental in organizing the World Bioenergy Conference and welcomed IDEA’s delegates to their trade show venue. From left are Lars-Erik Larsson; Kjell Andersson; Monica Westerlund,
executive editor, District Energy magazine; Nina Soliva; Bob Smith, vice president, RMF Engineering, and
then IDEA board chair; Stina Backlund; and Malin Fredriksson. SVEBIO also was instrumental in creating
the new World Bioenergy Association, which held its startup meeting at the conference. The new organization will be a global voice for bioenergy and promote bioenergy use in a sustainable and economically
efficient way. It will help develop certification systems to document that fuels are sustainably produced
under acceptable working and social conditions and will promote biofuel and biomass trade, standardization of fuels, technical development and research. It will represent national and regional bioenergy
associations, as well as associated commercial enterprises in the bioenergy field. Check out
www.worldbioenergy.org for more details.
