Berkeley Lab recently joined the California Air Resources Board, UC Berkeley, and UC’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources in co-hosting the California Bioresources Economy Summit, aimed at harnessing biotechnology to convert California waste streams from farms, forests, and landfills into valuable low-carbon fuels and products.
Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences Mary Maxon keynoted the 2-day conference as it kicked off January 29 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. In her presentation, Maxon noted that expansion of the $370 billion per year U.S. bioeconomy could create more than 1 million jobs while reducing annual carbon emissions by up to 450 million tons.
JBEI Chief Science and Technology Officer Blake Simmons moderated a session entitled “Current and Future Technologies and Strategies,” which included JBEI Chief Executive Officer Jay Keasling. Representatives from Aemetis, the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Technologies Office, and Lygos joined Keasling on the panel.
Corinne Scown, Vice President for Life-Cycle, Economics and Agronomy at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, led a session that provided an overview of bioresources available for conversion to biofuels and bioproducts. Scown invited representatives from CalFIRE, CalRecycle, Humboldt State University, and UC Berkeley to participate.
The conference’s presentations are available here.