Larisa Brass: Renewable Energy Biomass Education Field Days educate on biofuels

KnoxvilleBiz.com
By Larisa Brass
Knoxville News Sentinel
Posted November 15, 2010 at 9:45 p.m.

As the prospect of using plants to power transportation gets closer to reality, a Knoxville conference aims to educate farmers and investors interested in entering the biofuel business — a proposition made more attractive by a new program of federal incentives for biomass production.

The Renewable Energy Biomass Education Field Days starts today and continues through Thursday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The event targets producers, landowners and investors interested in planting biomass crops such as switchgrass and trees and processing those crops into ethanol or other transportation fuel.

'Essentially we're trying to offer a little two-day school, if you will, on all the various diverse issues that are involved in biomass-based energy product,' said Mary Thompson, vice president of communications for the Farm Foundation, a nonprofit public policy group that is organizing the conference in collaboration with five U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies.

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