World Biofuels Markets Congress & Exhibition

Join the debate at the World Biofuels Markets Congress & Exhibition this March as we once again bring together the entire biofuels value chain to discuss key issues in the industry. We've been busy interviewing key speakers for their thoughts on the latest industry developments.

One of the hot topics this year is aviation biofuels. The aviation sector has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past year, with many major airlines doing successful test flights on biofuels, and some now using a blend of biofuel and kerosene on regular flight routes. We asked John Plaza, Chief Executive and Founder of Imperium Renewables what is the greatest challenge in the current market; "If significant funding is provided to develop and scale the advanced drop in biofuel strategies for jet fuel, large volumes will be commercially available. Without this funding it will be extremely challenging."

WBM Discuss Key Issues in the Biofuel Industry

In another interview, a key speaker from our Aviation session Kaisa Hietala, Vice President of Market Development at Neste Oil, argues the growth of the industry is largely dependent on political and regulatory support; "It will be driven by regulatory support and raw material supply" he stated.

Another critical area for all biofuels projects is finance and investment. During our Finance and Investment Conference, we'll look at the broader economics of the biofuels market in 2012 and beyond. David Berry, Principal at Flagship Ventures believes the three characteristics to a sound biofuels investment are "Strong IP; Great People; Unsubsidised price advantage."

He continues; "The early IPOs created hope that more could be done.  Their post-IPO performance and the now significant backlog of IPOs have gotten companies to re-evaluate what it takes for a good IPO, and have encouraged investors to think more thoughtfully about what an IPO-ready company really is."

We also spoke to Plinio Nastari, President of Datagro who will be speaking on the keynote finance session on day one: Bio-economics and Market Analysis. Speaking about his view on how to reach a sound biofuels investment, he states the three characteristics as; "Long term economic and environmental sustainability, sufficient working capital, and technological stock."  
Nastari added that "how to attract existing capital for a new round of investments in biofuels" was likely to be the biggest topic of conversation during the Finance & Investment Conference at World Biofuels Markets this year.

Click here to read full insights from Neste Oil, Imperium Renewables, Datagro, Flagship Ventures, FiveBarGate Consultants, General Motors, Skovde Biogas and Ministry of Environment (The Netherlands)

The 7th annual World Biofuels Markets will take place March 13-15, 2012 at the Beurs-World Trade Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The event is expected to draw more than 1,500 attendees from 80 countries and will include 275 expert speakers. Co-located with World Biofuels Markets will be the Bio-Based Chemicals and Biopower Generation conferences featuring the leading companies and technologies within these emerging sectors.

World Biofuels Markets will also feature the presentation of the 4th annual Sustainable Biofuels Awards, designed to recognise the tremendous innovation that is taking place in the development of truly sustainable and renewable fuels. Award nominations are now open in the ten different categories covering transportation fuels, aviation, biopower generation and bio-based chemicals.

More information on the awards, conference agenda, and registration is available at www.worldbiofuelsmarkets.com, by following World Biofuels Markets on Twitter @wbmnews, or by joining the LinkedIn World Biofuels Market NEWS group.