Wednesday, August 18

2pm - 6:30pm    Registration Open

5:30pm - 7pm    Welcome Reception

Thursday, August 19

8am - 5pm         Registration Open

8am - 8:30am    Continental Breakfast

8:30am - 12pm  General Session

• Accelerate: Updates from ACE Leadership

  • ACE leadership will discuss our game plan for accelerating ethanol demand and positioning our members for future success.

    • Dave Sovereign, ACE President (representing Golden Grain Energy)
    • Brian Jennings, ACE CEO
    • Ron Lamberty, ACE Senior Vice President & Market Development Director
• Welcome/Keynote: Special Guest (invited)
• Status of Clean Fuel Policies

  • Hear about the evolution and success of the Midwest Clean Fuels Initiative, developments in key states, and national efforts to advance a low carbon fuel standard.

    • Moderator: John Christianson, Christianson PLLP
    • Speaker: Brendan Jordan, Vice President Transportation & Fuels, Great Plains Institute
    • Speaker: Jonathan Lehman, ACE Lobbyist, Cultivating Conservation
• Balancing Act: Risk Management, Capital Investment Planning, and Profitability

  • This timely panel discussion moderated by ACE President Dave Sovereign will address volatility in commodity markets, crush margins, and strategies for staying profitable while balancing the demands on working capital.

    • Moderator: Dave Sovereign, ACE President/Chairman of the Board, Golden Grain Energy
    • Speaker: Jason Johnson, Managing Director, Compeer Financial
    • Speaker: Mike Blackford, Risk Management Consultant, StoneX

12:15pm - 1:15pm    LUNCH

1:30pm - 2:30pm      Breakout Sessions Round I (held concurrently)

• Planning for the Future: Boards, Employees, Products
  

  • Strategic planning is something a board of directors might undertake every 3-5 years. However, effective planning should involve more than the board and happen more frequently. This presentation will cover what planning really means and ways to be successful, including ideas you can incorporate and not have it feel like such an undertaking.

    • Donna Funk, KCoe Isom
• Insights on Carbon: Navigating Verification and Measuring Project Value

  • This session focuses on best practices to help you understand how to set up and monetize projects that capitalize on carbon-focused incentive programs and tax credits. It will include insights from the first complete cycle of California LCFS reporting and verification, as well as other low-carbon programs under development, explore effective monetization of 45Q tax credits, and provide insights on correlations between profitability and a plant’s focus on low-carbon programs, drawn from Christianson Benchmarking’s latest data.

    • Moderator/Speaker: Connie Lindstrom, Biofuels Benchmarking Analyst, Christianson PLLP
    • Speaker: Jamey Cline, Business Development Director, Christianson PLLP
    • Speaker: Kari Buttenhoff, Partner, Christianson PLLP

2:45pm - 3:45pm    Breakout Sessions Round II (held concurrently)

• Leading in an Era of Exponential Change

  • Change is perpetual, pervasive and exponential. In this interactive session, participants will learn how to address changes in the workplace and the changes in leadership needed to navigate this new reality. Participants can expect to have their current mindsets about leadership challenged to look beyond the traditional ways of thinking and leading. 

    • Bart Nichols, Talent Advisor, KCoe Isom
• Developing a Carbon Strategy

  • Join P&E Solutions, Whitefox, and Bioleap as they share their unique approaches to reducing your plant’s carbon score (“CI score”), allowing you to take advantage of current and future carbon markets. This session will use real plant data and modeling to demonstrate the carbon benefits available to today’s plants, with P&E Solutions demonstrating the carbon benefits and direct energy savings derived from the implementation of combined heat and power, Whitefox illustrating how membrane dehydration can reduce natural gas use and CI score while increasing plant rate and improving plant cooling and overall operations, and Bioleap detailing how it’s DEER System has cut natural gas usage at seven ethanol plants by about 20%, helping those plants achieve some of the lowest CI scores in the country.

    • Bernie Hoffman, Vice President, P&E Solutions LLC
    • James Knight, President, Bioleap Inc.
    • Paul Kamp, VP Sales & Business Development - North America, Whitefox

4pm - 5pm    Breakout Sessions Round III (held concurrently)

• Cutting Through The Noise with Compelling Communication Strategies

  • Research indicates the most trusted source in a person’s life is “someone like me.” Telling your story and sharing your experiences with the right audience, at the right time, in the right way, can make real and important change happen. Every ethanol plant board of directors, management team and plant staff can be a grassroots advocate and amplify the work done by their state and national organizations. Join these speakers as they combine practical tips on positive public relations with an emphasis on what can be done at the local level.

    • Moderator/Speaker: Katie Muckenhirn, Communications Director, American Coalition for Ethanol
    • Speaker: Sue Retka Schill, Editor/Writer, WriteOH
• Calculating Your Carbon Intensity

  • Using Ron Alverson’s customized simplified GREET model tool, ACE recently published the “Carbon Intensity Calculator” to equip farmers and ethanol producers with the ability to use their unique data to better understand their current carbon score. Join Ron as he walks you through how to use this calculator, and why knowing your CI score is so important.

    • Ron Alverson, ACE Board Member/Director, Dakota Ethanol
• Efficient Operational Strategies for Feed Diversification and Lower Carbon Intensity Score for Ethanol Biorefineries

  • Product diversification continues to be an important strategy for ethanol plants looking to position their operations for future success. While implementing technologies for diversification is of the utmost importance, the adoption of them must also translate into sustainable approaches that allow plants to lower their carbon intensity score.

     

    The process technologies developed by ICM, Inc. provide ethanol plants with the flexibility to efficiently create animal feed products based on market demands, while improving operational efficiencies and reducing their overall CI score.

     

    From evaluating and reducing energy consumption in the production process to designing new approaches that allow continuous dewatering throughout the process and optimized dryer performance, this  presentation will focus on sustainable strategies that translate into operational savings, lower energy consumption and CI improvements while producing of high quality feed.

    • Matt Durler, Vice President of Feed Development, ICM, Inc.

5pm - 6:30pm    Networking Reception

Friday, August 20

8am - 10am              Registration Open

8am - 8:30am           Continental Breakfast

8:30am - 12:00pm     General Session

• Flexing Forward: Higher Profits for Higher Ethanol Blends
  • Higher ethanol blends provide more than one road to higher profits. Hear from experts in the fuel industry on how retailers can capitalize on marketing efforts and carbon credits, leading to increased sales. 
    • Moderator/Speaker: Ron Lamberty, Senior Vice President & Market Development Director, American Coalition for Ethanol
• Driven to Diversify: Diversification/Co-Product Strategies and Market Opportunities
  • More detail coming
• From Net-Zero to Net-Negative Carbon: Accelerating Ethanol's Advantage

  • Ethanol is the only clean energy transportation fuel that can achieve both net-zero and net-negative carbon emissions. Hear from speakers who are working on carbon sequestration strategies that will achieve incredible GHG reductions and provide significant return on investment for low carbon producers.

    • Moderator: Brian Jennings, CEO, American Coalition for Ethanol
    • Speaker: Ron Alverson, ACE Board Member/Director, Dakota Ethanol
    • Speaker: Summit Agricultural Group
• Expanding Ethanol Use Around the World

  • With export markets and trade policy in the spotlight, hear from Brian Healy, Director of Global Ethanol Development with the U.S. Grains Council, to learn more about opportunities and challenges to increase ethanol and coproduct markets around the world.

BECOME A SPONSOR

Thank you for attending & supporting the 2020 ACE Conference

The American Coalition for Ethanol's 33rd annual conference was held in conjunction with the 2020 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) & Expo as a virtual event, on September 16, 2020. 

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the economic hardship it’s brought to bear on the ethanol industry, ACE leadership held a virtual event, paired with the FEW, to provide members with a safe, robust opportunity to catch up on the latest industry news, network with peers, and discover new technology. The conference theme of “Rising Up” embodies the resilience demonstrated by those in the ethanol industry in response to the pandemic and the grit these individuals possess to rise together - stronger than before.

For more than three decades, the ACE conference has focused on the people of the ethanol industry and their priorities — a meeting where ethanol producers rub shoulders with retailers, policymakers, researchers, and other industry members. This year’s abbreviated event consisted of an afternoon of general sessions, including updates from ACE leadership, and insight on topics related to restoring and building ethanol demand.

Check out the recap below!

WE APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT OF ACE CONFERENCE SPONSORS!