RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- North Carolina,
looking to seize growing opportunities in biofuels and other industrial
uses of biotechnology, will participate in the 2006 World Congress on
Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Toronto July 11-14.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the N.C. Department of
Commerce and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
jointly will sponsor a North Carolina exhibit and send staff to the event
to raise the state's profile in biofuels and industrial biotechnology.
"Rising costs at the gas pump, combined with our need for greater
energy independence, have turned biofuels into a white-hot opportunity with
long-term potential," said Leslie Alexandre, president and CEO of the
Biotechnology Center. "North Carolina is ready to compete because we have a
great agricultural capacity to grow biomass and the scientific and
technical know- how to process it into biofuels."
Biofuels include both bioethanol, a gasoline supplement that is
produced from starchy biomass -- such as corn -- through an enzymatic
process, and biodiesel, a diesel supplement produced from plant oils
through a chemical process.
New enzymatic technologies developed by companies such as Novozymes,
which operates a major enzyme-production facility in Franklinton, N.C.,
will help reduce the cost of biofuels so they can compete with traditional
petroleum- based products.
Because these new technologies can be used with many different plants
to produce next-generation biofuels, North Carolina has an opportunity to
identify key crops that will enable it to compete over the next decade with
the Midwestern Corn Belt states. Barley, soybeans, sweet potatoes and
switchgrass are often mentioned as viable agricultural feedstocks for
biofuel production that could be grown in North Carolina.
North Carolina already has attracted the East Coast's first ethanol
plant. Agri-Ethanol Products LLC is building a $150 million plant near
Aurora, in Beaufort County, N.C. The plant, one of three similar-sized
plants the company plans to build in the Mid Atlantic region, will produce
114 million gallons of ethanol a year from corn and grain sorghum.
Key organizations in North Carolina, such as the state Energy Office
and the N.C. Solar Center, understand the potential of biofuels and the
technology behind them. Representatives of like-minded organizations,
including Novozymes, Bayer CropScience, N.C. State University, the N.C.
Community College System's BioNetwork program and the Biotechnology Center,
attended last year's World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and
Bioprocessing in Orlando, Fla. Attendance at that meeting was up more than
50 percent from the first World Congress the year before.
The 2006 World Congress is sponsored by the Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the National
Agricultural Biotechnology Council (NABC) the Agri-Food Innovation Forum,
and BIOTECanada.
SOURCE North Carolina Biotechnology Center
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Related links:
http://www.ncbiotech.org
CONTACT:
Barry Teater, director of corporate
communications, or Maria Rapoza, vice president of the Science
and Technology Development Program, of the North Carolina
Biotechnology Center, +1-919-541-9366
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