As the cellulosic biofuels industry ramps up for commercial production, finance and investment will play an increasingly critical role. The Forum will bring together the members of the cellulosic biofuels industry with the financial community, including key players from the investor and lending communities as well as a variety of government funding sources from the federal, state and international sectors. Together, they will exchange market intelligence, share perspectives on employing new deal structures and crafting new strategies, explore the opportunities for accessing government support, and build on their mutual understanding of funding source criteria to determine what elements are essential to get cellulosic biofuels deals successfully financed in 2010 and beyond.

The Summit will provide an exceptional venue for the various communities in the cellulosic biofuels value chain to come together, discuss their most recent activities in advancing industry commercialization and report on the progress they are making in addressing the key technical, organizational, economic and financial challenges facing the industry. Themes that will be highlighted in this year’s edition include the increasing involvement of the oil industry in cellulosic biofuels development and the progress of plant developers to get an assortment of biorefineries built and operating in order to provide the feedback needed to move to large-scale production. Finally, the Summit offers a rich opportunity for offline discussions, where everyone has the opportunity to network with other groups in the value chain and establish ongoing relationships.

The vast amount of feedstocks required to achieve the volume of renewable fuels required by the RFS has triggered the need to establish an economical and sustainable biomass feedstock supply chain. Getting this supply chain (and its logistics) up and running is a major challenge. Moreover, getting it ready to meet the demand of new biofuels plants as the industry ramps up is critically important. The Forum will provide an excellent opportunity for attendees to explore the current developments taking place to assemble the infrastructure and logistics of a national cellulosic feedstock supply chain. The focus will be the near-term and will examine developments in woody biomass, crop residues and switchgrass. The Forum will also look at the developments taking place to supply the biomass power market, which is already placing demands on the feedstock market. Finally, the status-reports by these trailblazers should inspire others to parlay their “lessons learned” into further progress.