A Small Contribution

Image on a laptop projected to the big screen

Last Friday the Navy, USDA, DOE, and DOT sponsored an Advanced Biofuel Industry Roundtable in Washington, D.C. to help interested companies understand opportunities for building partnerships and finding ways to resource their businesses. There was a good turnout, and so was the feedback from the attendees. I didn't have to speak, but was asked to provide a little bit of staff support for one of the speakers at the last minute. After a quick exchange of emails on the Blackberry, whipping out my MacBook Pro from the briefcase, some quick work on Powerpoint after editing an image in Photoshop, and then a transfer to a flash drive - voila': a big-screen backdrop for the speaker. (note the arrow in the photograph at the left showing the handy work as it appeared on projector's laptop.)

This week there have been major industry announcements by Boeing and United Airlines stating their intentions to promote and utilize renewable aviation biofuels. Not ethanol, but fuel that looks the same, burns in turbine engines, costs the same, but performs better than petroleum-based fuel. USDA thinks its a good idea, too. When reading comments to news reports about aviation biofuels, it is interesting the amount of misinformation that is out there.