This travel grant is to provide funding to about 12 academic researchers from the USA to participate and present papers at the Joint Symposium on Forest Based Biorefinery Technologies and International Conference on Biomass-Energy Technologies, ICBT 2012 in Nanjing, China, October 22-24, 2012. The symposium aims to provide a communication and exhibition platform for experts, scholars, and entrepreneur in the biomass energy field. The delegates will include not only renowned experts, scholars, and government officials, but also company executives and professionals of investment institutions in Asia, Europe, and the United States. At this event they will discuss and exchange their ideas on ?hot spots??novel technologies?and commercial development so as to encourage cooperative research on biomass energy technologies between China and other countries, and promote the integration of the Chinese biomass energy industry with international enterprises and investment institutions. This conference will also provide new development opportunities for international biomass energy institutions and enterprises. The U.S. team including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers will investigate international collaborative opportunities at the symposium. This symposium will fill a critical need and bring focus to joint efforts between USA and China on feedstock supply, conversion technologies, kinetics and reaction engineering of biomass conversions, separation and purification processes and novel bioproducts and materials in the context of forest products based biorefineries.
Collaboration between the Forest and Plant Bioproducts Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the Chinese Society for Biomass and Bioenergy was initiated for sharing research and perspectives to result in greater joint activities in the future. The FBD division of AIChE has been developing strong programs of sessions and tracks at the annual meetings of the AIChE for the past four years. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together academics prominently involved in forest bioproducts and biorefinery research in the USA, with colleagues from China and other Asian countries. The Chinese sponsors of the International Conference on Biomass and Energy Technologies (ICBT2012) include the Chinese Renewable Energy Society (CRES), Chinese Academy of Forestry. The symposium provided a communication platform for experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs in the biomass energy field. The delegates included scholars, and government officials, company executives and professionals of investment institutions in Asia, Europe, and the United States. A SPECIAL ISSUE Journal of Bioprocess Engineering and Biorefinery Vol. 1, 127–128, 2012 www.aspbs.com/jbeb American Scientific Publishers 26650 The Old Road, Suite 208 Valencia, California 91381-0751, USA Tel.: (661) 799-7200 Fax: (661) 799-7230 E-mail: order@aspbs.com A Special Issue on Biomass Conversion: Thermochemical and Enzymatic Approaches Selected papers from the International Conference on Biomass and Energy Technologies (ICBT 2012) and Joint Biomass Energy Symposium of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), National Science Foundation (NSF), Chinese Renewable Energy Society and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China, October 22–24, 2012. With the rapid rate of industrialization in large parts of the globe, supplies of fossil fuels have been stressed and also serious environmental concerns have developed about the impact of fossil carbon on global climate. It appears that the existing energy resource system based on fossil fuels is unsustainable in the long term and a transition to renewable energy resources will need to occur for sustainable industrial development of society in the future. Amongst the variety of renewable energy sources, biomass presents one of best alternatives, primarily due to its relatively uniform global distribution and the fact of its zero net contribution to the atmospheric carbon load thus avoiding the emissions implicated in climate change phenomena. As the largest developing country with an extremely rapid economic development, China has seen an unprecedented growth in energy demand in recent years. However, a heavy dependence on imported petroleum has jeopardized China’s energy security and the coal-dominated energy structure has caused serious environmental problems. The Chinese government has realized the significance of developing bioenergy due to its potential in alleviating environmental pollution, slowing global warming, and reducing the dependence on the limited supplies of fossil fuels. Indeed, biomass is widely available as an energy resource in China; its total amount, including that which is used by peasant households in rural areas, is comparable to the amount of coal. The development of new technologies for processing biomass has already become an integral part of the national energy strategy. In this context, biomass has become the focus of R&D and various bioenergy technologies have been developed in China. A great number of scientists and experts have been engaged in the R&D of biomass energy conversion for many years. In order to promote academic and industrial research interactions in the field of biomass energy research and development, the International Conference on Biomass- Energy Technologies (ICBT2012) and joint symposium with AIChE was organized by the Chinese Renewable Energy Society (CRES), Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has been held successfully on October 22–24, 2012 in Nanjing, China. The symposium was sponsored jointly by the AIChE’s Forest and Plant Bioproducts Division and the Biomass Energy Division of the CBEA. The ICBT2012 provided a communication and exchange platform for researchers, developers and entrepreneurs in the biomass energy field. The participants included renowned academics, research leaders from government sponsored laboratories, company executives and professionals in project investment and development from China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Sweden, Singapore, New Zealand, France and Greece. The conference also received about 147 full-text papers and 73 abstracts, reflecting the current status of bioenergy R&D in China, covering areas such as biomass feedstock, biochemicals and bioproducts, biomass to liquid fuels, biomass power, kinetic and chemical reaction engineering of biorefinery processes and biomass preprocessing and downstream processing. From the presented work, it can also be concluded that bioenergy R&D in China is blooming and that China has been on the way to establishing bioenergy commercialization modes suitable for developing countries. This special issue of the Journal of Bioprocess Engineering and Biorefinery compiles selected papers that were presented at ICBT2012. All of these papers deal with R&D activities concerning bioenergy and provide much detailed information on bioenergy technology and industry in China; they also indicate some directions for the development of bioenergy in the near future. We hope that this special issue will be helpful to the reader and that it might enhance information exchange between China and other countries in the bioenergy field. Finally, we sincerely thank all the people who have supported ICBT2012 and who have contributed to the publication of this special issue. A special appreciation is extended to the reviewers of the manuscripts. Guest Editors Jianchun Jiang Bandaru V. Ramarao
