Past EventNovember 12, 2013 – Bioenergy/Biofuels
For the final meeting of the year, NMBio has planned a special program on biofuels and bioenergy with a panel that will provide a wide range of perspectives on the topics. Speakers from industry, academics and research will bring us up to date on biofuels and bioenergy and the role they play in New Mexico’s economic wellbeing.
PLEASE NOTE: Meeting will be held at the STC Rotunda, 801 University SE. Parking info: STPark Map
Join us on Tuesday, November 12 to hear presentations by Paul Laur, CEO and President of Eldorado Biofuels, Luke Spangenberg from Santa Fe Community College bioenergy program, Lesli Allison with Chama Peak Land Alliance, Jose Olivares, LANL Bioscience Division Leader and biofuels guru, Meghan Downs from NMSU on biofuels sustainability, and Bryn Davis with Sapphire Energy.
Panelist Bios
Lesli Allison, Chama Peak Alliance – Lesli is the executive director of the Chama Peak Land Alliance and programs director for the Western Landowners Alliance. A long-time ranch manager, Lesli assists landowners in achieving ecologically and economically sound land management at the landscape scale. She is currently developing a public/private partnership to protect and restore the heavily forested San Juan-Chama watersheds through collaborative planning and biomass utilization.
Bryn Davis – Bryn Davis is currently the New Mexico Operations Manager responsible for all aspects of starting up (and constructing) Sapphire’s field operations site, including all permitting, land negotiations and acquisition, site development, infrastructure, and development of staff. Mr. Davis has strong ties to the local region and the state which help facilitate development of Sapphire’s facilities.Mr. Davis is a past Chair of MVEDA (local economic development) and currently serves by appointment of the governor of New Mexico as executive member of the State Workforce Board and committees affiliated with economic and business issues in the state.
C. Meghan Downes is an Associate Professor of Economics and Applied Statistics at New Mexico State University. She has been researching renewable energy for the past 5 years and has been working to assess the economic and environmental impact of renewable transportation fuels, specifically biofuels from algae. She is the director of director of economics and sustainability for the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, a DOE funded consortium that is completing its final reports. Her PHD is in environmental and natural resource economics with an emphasis on non-market valuation from the University of New Mexico.
Paul Laur, Founder and CEO of Eldorado Biofuels., is a Master Mariner who has navigated the energy industry for over 30 years: from Chief Officer on super tankers carrying 50 million gallons of North Slope crude oil; to Entrepreneur plying sustainable hydrocarbon solutions as Founder and CEO of Eldorado Biofuels. Paul is passionately exploring synergies between New Mexico’s established energy industry such as using algae to bio-remediate waste water from oil & gas production and harvesting the algae to produce oil & gas. Eldorado Biofuels has successfully demonstrated that algae can be cultivated in this “produced water” in open ponds, which solves a major gating factor for commercial scale biofuels production in the arid southwest: water scarcity.
Dr. Jose Olivares serves Division Leader for the Bioscience Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In this position, he provides strategic, technical and operational management for all activities within the Division. Major focus areas for the 150 staff within the Division include a longstanding effort in biosecurity, biosurveillance, and public health security. New areas of growth include bioenergy and biome science. He is the current Executive Director of the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, a consortium of 40 institutions recently funded by DOE-EERE Office of Biomass Programs.
Luke Spangenburg Santa Fe, New Mexico – Founder/ President of New Solutions Energy Corporation -Patented algae photo bioreactors, Director of the Santa Fe Community College Biofuels Center of Excellence, Advisor/ Tropical Institute Of Sustainable Agriculture – non profit