Nathan Ramsey of ArborGen LLC, headquartered in Summerville, will speak about the potential of purpose grown trees and biofuels at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, March 21-24 in Orlando, Fla.

The World Congress is the premiere industrial biotechnology conference, drawing more than 1,000 representatives from diverse disciplines and nearly 400 companies in dozens of nations. As an invited speaker, Ramsey will elaborate on ArborGen’s work in purpose grown trees and the value they deliver as a sustainable and economical biofuels feedstock.

“Purpose grown trees offer many benefits and advantages to the biofuels industry. Improved characteristics in trees include demonstrated growth rate improvements exceeding 100 percent in pine and hardwood species, as well as cold tolerance and enhanced wood composition that includes reducing and shifting lignin composition,” said Ramsey, manager of business development at ArborGen.

“Ultimately, it will be possible to harvest purpose grown trees in rotations of five to seven years, or less, with biomass productivity of 10 to 15 dry tons per acre per year or more. This technology, along with production and logistical system efficiencies, will enable production of millions of tons of biomass from purpose grown trees to be delivered at costs of less than $40 per dry ton.”

ArborGen is developing and testing the potential commercial application of fast-growing trees with desirable traits for biofuels. For example, the mass production of cellulosic ethanol will require large and reliable quantities of biomass feedstock. With improved productivity and shorter rotations, fast-growing trees offer a ready solution to large-scale biomass supply and demand.