Plant operational teams spend considerable time, energy and monies to limiting or eliminating threats and impediments to yeast populations or their overall productivity. Conventional yeast strains are sensitive to variances in temperatures and organic acids and producers are keen to find new strains more suited to withstand the conditions that come along with commercial scale ethanol production. This panel showcases advances in yeast strains that exhibit not only the robustness producers have been longing for, but also offer an opportunity at greater yield while reducing overall fermentation expenses.

• Matthew Watts, Senior Scientist, Novozymes
  Reducing Process Variability and Increasing Yield with Robust Advanced Yeasts
• Greg Poynter, Senior Biotechnologist, Cargill
  Development of a Yeast Biocatalyst with Yield Enhancing Traits for the Corn Ethanol Industry
• Mickel Jansen, Senior Scientist Fermentation, DSM Advanced Yeast & Enzymes
  Realization of the Full Ethanol Production Performance with Advanced Yeasts
• Matt Richards, Director of Application Technology, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  The Next Generation of Yeast-Expressed Enzymes to Enhance Production

Ethanol plant management teams know that regular capital investment in their operation is vital to keep pace with an evolving industry. While management teams understand that sound technology investments are the best way to unlock new revenue streams, the right way to navigate the decision-making process about which investments to make is less clear. This discussion will offer producers guidance on how to best build financial models that offer a clear picture of the relative risk of a project, the new revenues that can be anticipated and the sensitivity of the investment to a broad range of input costs and marketplace scenarios.

• Neal Jakel, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Comparative Financial Analysis of Capex Projects
• Jennifer Aurandt-Pilgrim, Director of Technology, Marquis Energy LLC
  Managing Innovation in the Ethanol Industry
• Douglas Rivers, Project Director, Lee Enterprises Consulting Inc.
  Ethanol 2020: Where Should Ethanol Producers be Headed?

In the industry’s ongoing effort to capture as much value from inbound corn as possible, technology developers have turned their focus to increasing protein concentrations in plant DDGS streams. The presentations in this panel will bring attendees up to speed on the separation approaches being considered and deployed in the ethanol sector today. The panel will highlight the leading separation technologies while also looking at how to best predict protein capture rates, the overall impact of protein separation to a plant’s overall co-product portfolio and some thoughts from nutritionists on realizing the full potential of this high value feed product.

• Kyle Flynn, Director of Business Development, ST Equipment & Technology
  Water Free Process for Protein Enhancement of DDGS
• Michael Franko, Vice President, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Protein Separation Innovation; The Latest Advances in Protein Separation Technologies
• Jeff Scharping, Director of Sales & Marketing, ICM Inc.
  Advanced Processing Package™ from ICM Produces 50% Yeast-Rich Protein Feed and Maximizes Efficiency

All ethanol production hinges on yeast populations surviving and thriving in a fermentation environment beset with conditions not optimal for propagation, health or productivity. Working to help producers to maximize yield, bio-technology providers have focused their innovation into two main areas. The first is to develop yeast strains more tolerant of the harsh conditions of industrial ethanol production, while the second focuses on boosting the chances of the current suite of available yeasts by focusing on nutrients and the timing of propagation cycles. This panel makes room for each and will offer attendees a chance to ask if their current fermentation strategy is making the most of the advancements and innovation available to them.

• Andrew Hawkins, Director of Laboratory Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Ion Landscape and Yeast Health in the North American Ethanol Industry
• Raquel Rodriguez, Technical Service Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  A Simple Tool to Improve Fermentation Performance: Yeast Propagation Profile
• Pedro Peña, Lab and R&D Director, CTE Global Inc.
  Strategies for Optimizing Fermentation Environment for Efficient Yeast Performance and Feedstock Utilization

Plant management teams know that the working components of their facilities have a life span and will eventually need to be replaced. The art for maintenance teams is moving from a reactive to a proactive posture in their replacement and repair protocols. This discussion will focus on both disciplines and technologies available to producers hungry to move toward predictive maintenance. Presentations will feature not only technologies like conductivity and vibration sensing but also a discussion about the value of more thorough and regular visual inspections of plant energy centers.

• Anthony Stanley, Business Development Director, Grundfos Pumps Corporation
  Grundfos Machine Health (GMH) Combines Artificial Intelligence Technology with a Next-Generation Machine Health and Predictive Maintenance Solution
• Herbert Huong, Business Development Automation & Connectivity, Service Division, Alfa Laval Inc.
  From Preventive to Predictive Maintenance
• Dan Walter, Senior Engineering Manager, SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions
  On-Line Analysis of Evaporator Efficiency Allows More Effective Management of System Cleanliness Leading to Reduced Operational Cost and Minimizing Carbon Impact from Evaporator Operations

Plant leadership teams understand that while their priority is managing risks at the plant-level they cannot afford nor avoid considering the risks facing the industry at large. This panel begins with two presentations aimed at helping producers do what they can to limit their risk exposure at the plant level before pulling back to offer a broader look at the industry and the policy and marketplace risks facing the sector. Management teams will appreciate this opportunity to consider their plant’s risk management posture in the context of an honest assessment of the overall health of the industry.

• Chip Whalen, Vice President of Education & Research, Commodity & Ingredient Hedging
  Risk Management in the Absence of Margin
• Connie Lindstrom, Senior Biofuels Analyst, Christianson PLLP
  Mapping the Road Ahead: A SWOT Analysis of the US Ethanol Industry

Ethanol producers know that the financial success of their operation correlates tightly to their ability to maximize yield one fermentation at a time. Maximizing yield requires close observation and analysis of each fermentation so that should conditions begin to stray from optimal, producers can intervene and mitigate disruptions before they can impact yield. The challenge for ethanol producers has always been the quality of information they can gather and the speed by which it can be obtained. The presentations in this panel highlight the leading approaches that allow lab personnel to gain a better understanding of the upsets facing their fermentation in a more-timely fashion, enabling them to take meaningful corrective action and preserve yield.

• Dan Biggerstaff, Technical Director, Enertech Solutions Inc.
  Evaluation of a New HPLC Column for Quality Control Analysis in Fermentation Process Control
• Jonathon Speed, Product & Applications Manager, Keit Spectrometers
  Taking Analysis Out of the Lab and Into the Plant
• Allen Ziegler, CEO, Archangel Inc.
  Introducing the Revolutionary, New, GenesisgeneTM, Onsite DNA Microbiological Technology that Allow Biofuel Facilities to Determine Both Total and Specific Bacteria in Less Than One Hour
• Matt Hawkins, Applications Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Use of a Molecular Technique to Determine the Antimicrobial Resistance of Bacteria within an Industrial Mash Sample

The impulse to diversify primary and coproduct streams was strong before a prolonged trade war with China tamped down global ethanol demand. Now, as producers face unprecedented uncertainty in demand for their traditional product offering, producers are hungry for an opportunity to access alternative markets, shoring up plant balance sheets with new revenue streams. The presentations in this panel showcase the technologies currently available to producers hoping to break out of the ethanol/DDGS box and redirect a portion of their output to new industrial chemical and feed markets.

• Neal Jakel, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Ethanol the Coproduct: How Diversifying Products Reduces Reliance on Ethanol and Sets the Stage for Efficiencies
• Chuck Gallop, Operations Development Manager, ICM Inc.
  Selecting ICM Technologies to Meet Your Plant-Specific Goals and Operating Strategies
• Shrikant Rathi, Sr. General Manager - Business Americas, Praj Industries Ltd.
  Diversify Your Products to Produce High Value US Pharmacopeia / Grain Neutral Spirit from Your Fuel Ethanol Plant
• Mark Yancey, Chief Technology Officer, D3MAX LLC
  Produce High Protein DDGS and Cellulosic Ethanol from your Corn Fiber and Residual Starch, plus an update on the D3MAX process at Ace Ethanol

Ethanol producers and technology providers alike know there remains unrealized value within plant coproduct streams. Presenters in this panel bring that notion into sharp focus, sharing the leading pathways available to producers eager to innovate within their coproduct offering. Rather than settle for business as usual coproduct strategy, these presentations will get producers thinking about producing more specialized feed products that could garner higher prices from feed markets typically closed to traditional DDGS volumes.

• Jennifer Aurandt-Pilgrim, Director of Technology, Marquis Energy LLC
  Ethanol Plant Integration of Increased Oil Recovery, Energy Savings and Coproduct Diversification
• Douglas Tiffany, Research Fellow, University of Minnesota
  Using Solid State Fermentation of DDGS to Enhance Critical Amino Acids
• Jared Walker, CCUS Program Manager, Battelle
  CO2, Waste or Revenue? How CCUS can Monetize Emissions

Protecting an ethanol plant from bacterial infection has always required continuous attention from producers. Fortunately, they’ve been supported by nearly continuous innovation around optimized control strategies. This panel will serve as a showcase of the ongoing effort to design, test and deploy effective control measures for commercial-scale ethanol production. Presentations cover a range of topics including the importance of designing solutions specific to the problematic microorganism populations, the use of hops to control infection and focusing cleaning efforts on the areas most conducive to bacterial outbreaks.

• James Steele, Lactic Solutions General Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Ecology and Control of the Microbiota of Ethanol Biorefineries
• Cam Fowler, Senior Director Technical Service & Marketing, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Cleaning the Most Common Infection Source in Ethanol Production (Beer Mash Area)

Effectively managing water usage is a herculean task for plant production teams. It requires massive amounts of energy to heat, move, treat, separate from ethanol, cool and return to the process or discharge. The good news for producers is the economic value for technologies that increase the efficiency of any of these process steps continues to spur incredible innovation. This panel features innovation in water management from dehydration all the way through wastewater treatment providing producers with different pathways to drive down the overall cost of their operation’s water program.

• Daniel Jones, Ethanol Industry Leader, SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions
  Improving Facility Production Rates through Simplistic Water Balance Improvement Strategy
• Stephan Blum, Chief Technology Officer, Whitefox Technologies Limited
  Ethanol Production Process: A Step-Change in Overall Efficiency by the Use of Membranes
• Kraig Kmiotek, Product Specialist – Process Analytics, Metrohm USA Inc.
  From Ethanol to Waste Water: Online Analysis for Process Improvement

While plant leadership teams have no trouble imagining the impact a fully-invested, excited and empowered team could have on their operation, intentionally building such a culture has proven more difficult. This panel promises to push past the leadership clichés and offer producers real strategies they can begin deploying today to inspire their people and align their team with the operational and financial goals established for the plant by its board of directors.

• Bart Nichols, Talent Advisor, K-Coe Isom
  Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast!
• Kala Jenkins, Agriculture Consultant, K-Coe Isom LLP
  Leading from WHY
• Gary Weihs, Managing Partner, Kincannon Reed
  Developing Executive Presence

If operational data is captured but never informs future production iterations, was it worth capturing in the first place? This panel will help producers move beyond data collection to informed action. Buoyed by presentations rooted in mining data to optimize process efficiency the panel will also make room for presentations that focus on ensuring the data plant teams gather is accurate and reliable as well as the growing potential of artificial intelligence in ethanol production. Panelists will make the case that the plants achieving the highest yields tomorrow will be those who make a commitment to data-based operational decision making today.

• Don Mack, Industry Manager, Siemens Industry Inc.
  Digitalization Use Cases
• Andrew Hawkins, Director of Laboratory Services, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Regain Control of Your Lab Instruments: How to Use Control Charts
• Hank Brittain, Director of Optimization & Advanced Control, OpX Control Inc.
  48% Average Variability Reduction at 36 Ethanol Plants: Where do you Stack Up; or Are you Missing Out?
• Ryan Magner, Asset Management Specialist, Black & Veatch
  Data Analytics: Best Practices for Operating Facilities

Curbing bacterial contamination events may be the most obvious motivation behind robust plant cleaning programs, but it certainly isn’t the only one. Biofilms and mineral deposit impede cooling capacity, slow beer feed rates and significantly reduce the expected lifespan of expensive components. Not surprisingly then, effective plant cleaning has become an art and this panel features providers who continue to push toward more cost-effective cleaning approaches and protocol. Ethanol producers can expect to hear about the enhancements and refinements ready to be deployed into their cleaning programs packed with data about the efficacy of these novel approaches and the demonstrated financial impact of their recent deployments.

• Andrew Ledlie, Marketing Manager, Solenis LLC
  Novel Cooling Water Treatment Strategy Increases Ethanol Production while Reducing Operating Costs and Carbon Intensity

The presentations in this panel assert that targeted, job-specific training can simultaneously increase the value that staff add to a plant while also creating a more meaningful and valuable work experience for the employees. Presentations range from the ways training can fill very specific skill gaps all the way to the importance of lab personnel understanding how their daily tasks inform and impact the production efforts of the whole plant. Together, these presentations will make it clear that best-in-class training simultaneously benefits both the plant and its employees.

• Rick Cowman, President, Welding Training Solutions Inc.
  Dealing with the Skills Gap in the Pool of Prospective Employees
• Shelly Siemonsma, Technical Services Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Increasing Value as Bio-Refinery Lab Personnel
• Jim Carrel, Reliability Coach, Reliability Management Strategies
  Developing Your Competency-Based Learning Model for Uptime and Reliability

As the ethanol industry scaled, having a relatively limited market for its feed coproduct didn’t do much to limit industry growth. DDGS volumes found their way to into ruminant rations, and producers were satisfied with the revenue streams the beef and dairy markets offered. Now that the industry has reached maturity the need to diversify and capture even more value from coproduct streams is paramount. The presentations in this panel will underscore the importance of developing new feed products for different markets, getting them tested and validated and jump-starting their regular inclusion in feeding regimens in swine, poultry and fish markets.

• Pete Moss, President, Cereal Process Technologies LLC
  Dry Fractionation: Implementing a New Vision and New Technology for a New Decade
• Mallorie Wilken, Technical Consultant, ICM Inc.
  Advancing the Feed Industry through Education, Classification and Market Development
• Joe Ward, Senior Nutritionist, North America, Fluid Quip Technologies LLC
  Feeding Trials: How Data Advances Protein Profits
• Yanhong Zhang, Director of Research, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center
  Relieve World Hunger with Corn Protein from Midwest

This back-to-the-basics panel will take an in-depth look at the critical importance of bringing high quality starch into a plant and making as much available for fermentation as possible. The panel will begin by looking closely at inbound grain quality and how that reverberates through the entire production cycle. The conversation then pivots to strategies for maximizing starch availability for fermentation via improved solubilization before concluding the discussion with a presentation on a new approach of predicting ethanol yield, fermentor by fermentor.

• Stephanie Gleason, Senior Manager Technical Service, Phibro Ethanol Performance Group
  Impact of Feedstock and Feedstock Quality on Ethanol Production
• Chris Ashworth, Technical Services Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Starch, Fermentation Costs, & Yield
• Elizabeth Waguespack, Scientist, Novozymes
  Better Insights for Production Improvements: Measuring What Really Matters for Profitability
• Yanhong Zhang, Director of Research, National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center
  Quantifying Ethanol Yield on a Per-Fermentor Basis in Commercial Ethanol Plants

To fully capture the potential of each plant employee, management teams must do their part to ensure they are both competent and empowered; having one without the other diminishes the potential value of each team member. This panel will ask plant management teams to consider not only how they deliver timely and regular skills training, but also if their operation cultivates a workplace culture that rewards employees willing and able to raise their performance and do their part to drive toward ambitious plant goals.

• Bart Nichols, Talent Advisor, K-Coe Isom
  Put Me In, Coach!
• Wade Rummel, Technical Services Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits
  Consistent Operation by Use of Training and Procedures
• Ron Faciane, Director, GP Strategies Corporation
  Building a Competent Workforce that Achieves Business Success

The rise and proliferation of corn oil capture from plant distillers’ grains streams changed forever coproduct strategies for ethanol plant teams. What was once viewed a singular feed product for a limited market is now viewed as an amalgam of individual components that would likely carry more value if they could be isolated and captured. The presentations in this panel focus on the technologies available to producers to better isolate and capture greater quantities of corn oil and protein while also showcasing a biological pathway to increased ethanol volumes via cellulose liberated from corn kernel fiber.

• Kevin Moore, VP of Advanced Separation Group, Trucent
  The Hunt for More Corn Oil: Tips and Techniques for Maximizing Corn Oil Yield
• Bob Fesser, Industry Sales Manager, Hydro-Thermal Corporation
  Using DSI to Enhance Coproduct Yields
• David Gogerty, Product Application Scientist, Novozymes
  Unlocking Benefits with Enhanced Fiber Conversion
• Adam Belyamani, Chief Operating Officer, Saola Energy LLC
  The Road to Higher Profits: How a Renewable Diesel Plant Fits the Concept of a Diversified Biorefinery