Bio­fu­els: Need, Land, Car­bon, and Development

Lee R. Lynd

Thayer School of Engi­neer­ing, Dart­mouth Col­lege

Global Sus­tain­able Bioen­ergy Project

Enchi Cor­po­ra­tion

RAEL Lab Meeting

12 — 1 pm, 8 Octo­ber 2015

310 Bar­rows Hall, Room 323

—THURSDAY—

 Two of the most impor­tant chal­lenges fac­ing those alive today are smoothly nav­i­gat­ing a tran­si­tion from reliance on resource cap­i­tal to reliance on resource income, and alle­vi­at­ing poverty.  Trans­for­ma­tive changes in energy sup­ply will be required to address both of these chal­lenges, with the “sec­ond half “ of low car­bon elec­tric­ity and trans­porta­tion sup­ply par­tic­u­larly dif­fi­cult to achieve.   Although con­tro­ver­sial, many fore­see that energy from plant bio­mass will be needed to address these inter­linked chal­lenges.   Per­spec­tives and recent research will be pre­sented on the need for bioen­ergy and bio­fu­els, land avail­abil­ity, low car­bon bioen­ergy sup­ply chains and related account­ing issues, and the role of bioen­ergy in development.

Lee Lynd is the Paul and Joan Que­neau Dis­tin­guished Pro­fes­sor of Engi­neer­ing and Adjunct Pro­fes­sor of Biol­ogy at Dart­mouth Col­lege, Focus Area Leader for Bio­mass Decon­struc­tion and Con­ver­sion at the US Depart­ment of Energy Bioen­ergy Sci­ence Cen­ter, Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee Chair­man of the Global Sus­tain­able Bioen­ergy Project, and Co-​​Founder and Direc­tor of Mas­coma and Enchi Cor­po­ra­tions.  He is a fel­low of the National Acad­emy of Sci­ences, and recip­i­ent of the Lemelson-​​MIT Sus­tain­abil­ity Prize for inven­tions and inno­va­tions that enhance eco­nomic oppor­tu­nity and com­mu­nity well-​​being while pro­tect­ing and restor­ing the nat­ural envi­ron­ment, the Charles D. Scott award for dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tions to the field of biotech­nol­ogy for fuels and chem­i­cals, and two-​​time recip­i­ent of a Charles A. Lind­bergh grant in recog­ni­tion of efforts to pro­mote a bal­ance between envi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal advancement.