Synbios III conference - Waving fossil fuels good-bye?

Except for the answer to a question the entire world is asking, the aim of the third Synbios conference is more modest. In two days time attendants will get an update on research results, projects and business opportunities in the realm of automotive biofuels and gasification, batteries and, for the first time in Synbios history, hybrid vehicles.

Stakeholders
Furthermore, Synbios wants to create a forum for discussion and beneficial contacts between stakeholders within the field. The first conference day will see representatives of the European Union and the Swedish environment ministry providing a helicopter view, followed by the car makers perspective and, in the afternoon, presentations on electric vehicles and batteries.

Friday will be all about fuel production. Representatives from the oil industry will have their say, including a 'green oil' session, as will alternative fuel producers and researchers.

Organisation
The organising party, Ecotraffic AB, is a biofuels and gasification consultancy, active in Northern Europe. They closely cooperate with Chalmers University of Technology and other research organisations. Synbios is organised with the assistance of the Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Environmental Institute and Swedish Road Administration.

Ecotraffic welcomes anyone wishing to efficiently put to use their region’s biomass resources, from producers and researchers to policy makers.

Highlight: realistic future fuel supply

Mr Ulf Svahn, managing director at the Swedish Petroleum Institute (SPI), will be giving a presentation titled 'Realistic future fuel supply'. “I'll be covering the medium-term perspective,” Mr Svahn says. “It will be a brief overview, dealing with questions like: What are the alternatives to fossil fuel? What are the advantages and shortcomings of the various alternatives?”

Halleluyah
The word 'realistic' in the title of his presentation, arouses curiosity. Does Mr Svahn feel there are a lot of unrealistic scenarios in the press or amongst the public? “I feel there is a lot of enthusiasm,” he answers, “but perhaps not always very well-founded when it comes to dates, volumes, green house gas emissions and total energy efficiency in a well-to-wheel perspective.

“There has been a lot of 'halleluyah', first about ethanol here in Sweden, but ethanol is somewhat 'in the closet' now, due to bad press about food competition. We at SPI still feel ethanol is part of the solution, though. Now there is much enthusiasm about biogas. But there are questions to ask about the possibilities of production of biogas and about the greenhouse gas emission reduction that can be attained. The latter differ with the source of biogas: whether from manure or from gasification.”

Teaser
So there will be plenty to discuss within a short time. “I'll only have twenty minutes, so it will be more of a teaser, almost, than a full presentation. But that can be useful as well: it can work as an eye-opener or it can be simply good to hear that we have an eye for certain points.”

On their website SPI describe themselves as “an industry organisation with the purpose of improving Industry conditions as well as being a link between politicians, authorities and other groups of interest in matters of concern to the Industry.”

Let's hope representatives of all these groups will be attending the conference, to assure a lively discussion at the end.