The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) 36th annual conference coming up August 23-25 in Minneapolis offers a variety of breakout sessions covering the latest in technology updates, strategic planning advice, and ways to make ethanol plants more profitable while reducing carbon emissions. The breakout sessions will be held concurrently in three rounds on the afternoon of Thursday, August 24, following the morning general session panels.
This year’s breakouts are split into three tracks: Leadership & Management, Technology, and Carbon. Breakout sessions include:
Leadership & Management Track – Optimization Tactics for Company Processes
Exploring Opportunities and Challenges in Plant Staffing and Administration — Christianson PLLP, Christianson Benchmarking, Beyond (A Christianson Company)
- Attendees will learn best practices for creating an agile business model that pivots as employee’s needs change, as well as how to ensure board and management work together to keep a plant competitive.
Board Succession Planning: How to Determine if you Have an Effective Board– Pinion (formerly KCoe Isom)
- Experts will share practical strategies and tools for conducting board assessments, defining clear succession plans, and developing a pipeline of qualified board candidates. Attendees will gain actionable knowledge to enhance governance practices, ensure continuity, and drive organizational success through effective board succession planning.
Workforce Evolution: Harnessing the Power of your Current Workforce and the Future Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology– IFF, PROtect, Direct Companies
- This session will cover how to use digital tools to develop an even more intimate relationship with your customers and change how you serve the industry, while leaving you with strategies for successful hiring.
Technology Track – Advancements to Improve Producer Operations
Fermentation Treatment and Technology– Kurita America, Lallemand, Leaf by Lesaffre
- This panel looks at successful fermentation management strategies and dives in on topics like antibiotic applications for bacteria control. The panel will also uncover the role of enzymes in sustainable fermentation and advancements in microorganisms and processes to enhance fermentation.
Unlocking Corn Oil Extraction and Utilization Advancements – Phibro Ethanol, Trucent, ICM, Inc.
- This session will highlight emerging trends and what’s being done to unlock the full value and potential of corn oil in today’s market, including how to utilize analytics to deploy refinement and optimization strategies.
Maximizing Your Energy Resources – Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions, Bioleap
- This panel will discuss specific contaminants, optimum treatment approaches, and new innovations to minimize and reuse water, including technology to recover water and utilize waste energy to produce clean, boiler-quality steam.
Carbon Track – It’s all about Carbon: Capturing it, Reducing it, Scoring it
Climate-Smart Agriculture and Ethanol’s CI – PrairieFood, Gevo
- This session will highlight companies working to help farmers implement climate-smart farming practices that could eventually reap financial benefits for the producer and ultimately help decarbonize the ethanol production supply chain.
Engineering Carbon Reduction – Fluid Quip Technologies, P&E Solutions LLC, Whitefox Technologies Ltd
- This session will highlight some specific cutting-edge, carbon-reducing technologies available to the ethanol industry, as well as how to review common carbon intensity (CI) reduction technologies and determine the best CI reduction strategies based on facility specific advantages and challenges.
Real Time CI Scoring for Ethanol Producers – nZero, Gevo, Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE)
- This session will feature platforms to help ethanol producers and farmers realize their unique CI score to maximize revenues.
To register for the event and learn more about these sessions and others, visit ethanol.org/events/conference.