We also establish a relation. - European Biomass Conference and ...

CHaIRMan’s MessaGe
Dear Delegate,
It is a great honor for me to invite you to the
European Biomass Conference and Exhibition,
which will take place in the wonderful city of Milan.
Here in the capital of Lombardy which is the heart
of Italy’s bioenergy industry, is the right place to
celebrate the 20th anniversary of this outstanding
conference. Having for the 20th time an event,
which brings together the stakeholder of the
biomass community, is certainly a point to have a look back as well as
to think about the future of this strongly developing industry sector.
Now, one year after the disaster in Fukushima and in the time of
dramatically rising prices for fossil recourses there should be no doubt
about the necessity of renewables in any form. Nevertheless we have
to take note of a growing opposition against this promising technology,
especially in the biomass sector.
Is it really sustainable what we are doing? How much biomass can
we afford? What are the right applications for biomass? These are
examples for the questions which have to be answered, having in mind,
that without biomass, neither future energy supply nor many material
application of our modern society will be possible. Thus the World
Forum on ‘Food, Fuel and Environment: The Bioenergy Challenge’
will be one of the highlights of the 2012 Conference Opening.
Since this conference, as an annual event, constitutes one of the
world’s leading science-to-science, business-to-business and
science-to-industry forum for the biomass sector it will cover the whole
spectrum of the community’s interests. The horizontal and vertical
oriented sessions end events range from giving an worldwide
overview on the whole scene, over answering specific questions
for dedicated technologies in vertical events like: ‘Biogas Upgrading
and Grid Injection’, ‘Biogas goes Europe’, ‘Biowaste to Energy’
and ‘Bioenergy and Smart Grids’, up to defining the pathways for the
future. All this is condensed in the motto for the conference of this
year:
‘Setting the course for a biobased economy’.
So, together with the organizers I look forward to welcoming you to
the 20th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition from 18th to
22nd June 2012 in Milan. 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. bernd Krautkremer
fraunhofer Institute IWes
Head of bioenergy system Technology
I