Emerson to Host Biofuels Summits in Denver, Atlanta, Houston

Emerson Process Management, a business of Emerson (NYSE: EMR), is hosting a series of regional summits across the United States to address key factors and recommendations necessary to ensure the successful commercialization of alternative fuels, specifically second-generation biofuels.

The next Emerson Alternative Fuels/BioRefinery Summit will be Thursday, March 19, in Denver, followed by summits in Atlanta in April and Houston in May. Emerson kicked off the series in December in Madison, Wis.

Alternative fuels industry leaders and investors, academia, and other third-party experts are invited to attend the summits to discuss how to successfully tackle the challenge of translating alternative fuels technology into large-scale production of renewable and eco-friendly transportation fuels or energy for refineries, chemical plants, pulp mills, and other industries. Recent estimates suggest the United States could produce enough ethanol to displace nearly a third of all gasoline use by 2030, assuming companies demonstrate and implement commercially viable methods for turning non-edible biomass, such as garbage, wood waste, or sawgrass, into liquid fuels.

The U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced up to $25 million to advance the development of technologies and processes to produce next-generation biofuels. In addition, the USDA recently announced its first-ever loan to a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol refinery.

"Emerson has a track-record of helping companies with highly complex, complicated processes successfully lower their costs and risks of production, improve uptime and reliability, and provide certainty and predictability during new and somewhat uncertain operations,” said Alan Novak, director of alternative fuels for Emerson Process Management. "It’s our hope these summits will provide opportunities to share best practices and real-world experiences to help pave the way for a successful biofuels industry.”

Presenters for the Denver summit include:

• T. Randall Fortenbery, director of the RENK Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who will discuss feedstock challenges for advanced biorefineries.
• Daniel P. Goldman, executive vice president and chief financial officer for GreatPoint Energy, Inc., who will share a case study on process commercialization of new technologies.
• Michael McAdams, director of the Advanced Biofuels Coalition, who will address legislative impacts on second-generation biorefinery development.
• Novak of Emerson, who will show how intelligent process control systems and automation can help biofuels facilities reduce risk for more efficient production and scalability.

The Emerson Alternative Fuels/BioRefinery Summit is Thursday, March 19, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Doubletree Hotel Denver-North, 8773 Yates Drive, Westminster, Colo. Space is limited. For more information and to register, go to www.EmersonProcess.com/AlternativeFuelsSummit.

About Emerson Process Management

Emerson Process Management (www.EmersonProcess.com), an Emerson business, is a leader in helping businesses automate their production, processing, and distribution in the chemical, oil and gas, refining, pulp and paper, power, water and wastewater treatment, mining and metals, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries. The company combines superior products and technology with industry-specific engineering, consulting, project management and maintenance services. Emerson brands include PlantWeb®, Fisher®, Rosemount®, Micro Motion®, Daniel®, DeltaV™, Ovation®, and AMS® Suite.

About Emerson

Emerson (NYSE: EMR), based in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global leader in bringing technology and engineering together to create innovative solutions for customers through its network power, process management, industrial automation, climate technologies, and appliance and tools businesses. Sales in fiscal 2008 were $24.8 billion. For more information, visit www.Emerson.com.

PlantWeb, Fisher, Rosemount, Micro Motion, Daniel, DeltaV, Ovation, and AMS are marks owned by one of the Emerson Process Management legal entities. Other marks are property of their respective owners.