PROCEEDINGS - Industries of the Future - West Virginia - West ...

Inaugural Symposium Proceedings
that instead of having to invest in new equipment, their best option for performance, energy,
environment, and economics was to shut down one fan on every pot line where they had four fans
going. It improved the overall performance of the system and saved 25% of their energy right away.
So you can do a near-term thing, you can do a mid-term thing, and you can do long-term
things, but what’s key is that it’s all charted on those visions and road maps. Because, if you start
making investments today that aren't targeted at that long-term vision, you're wasting your resources.
We've done that for too long, not only in the United States, but many of the places throughout the
world. For each industry for which we create these portfolios, we regularly ask, "Is this on target, does
it need to change, does it need some encouragement and help from organizations at the federal and
state level?"
Hopefully, this is what you're going to get to, because that's really when the magic occurs.
The magic occurs because once you have this, you know that you have the ability to bring more players
to the table. When you clearly chart out what the long-term needs are, you become like AISI, which
has all kinds of different companies proposing on their solicitation this year. Or, like the Aluminum
Association, which has sent out hundreds of copies of the aluminum road map. Why? Because people
can understand what you're trying to do. For example, in the forest products industry last year when
they made the call against their road maps, they got 700 responses. Seven hundred responses of new
ideas. So, it's a remarkable process; it provides a tremendous amount of synergy. I can give you
examples for each one of the industries that were kind enough to come and share their ideas. There's
so much going on in cogeneration, and sensors and controls, waste utilization, and heat recovery. The
key here that I really encourage you to do is take the time to learn, take the time to listen, take the time
to find out what’s going on in other places, and chart your road map to the future. It will help
tremendously in bringing people to the table.
This may not be astounding to you but it was astounding to me. When we did these
assessments, we looked into the government wide programs that can potentially contribute to their road
maps. For aluminum the potential contribution was some 23 programs at roughly four billion dollars. It
was something enormous, and even if everyone of those programs can't help out, even if it's just a small
portion of them, think of the difference that it will make for the industry.
And so what I want to do is this. I want to commit to you that we're here to help and
encourage and get you connected. We have industries that come to us voluntarily asking us to help
them through the visioning process. We are working with the Carbon Products Consortium in that
way, to help the carbon industry do visioning and road mapping to interface as a cross-cutting industry
with many other industries. Heat treating, welding, forging, and the titanium industry are others with
which we were recently involved. So, we'll be more than happy to spend a tremendous amount of time
and effort with you.
You really are a hallmark, as the first state that's taken this step to use what has been
developed at the national level and make the most of it at the state level. Thank you very much.
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