UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The first International Summit on Biofuels Research and Business Opportunities in Ukraine, organized by Penn State and sponsored by the Woskob New Century Fund, was deemed a success by the dean of the university's College of Agricultural Sciences.

"The summit is an early step in Ukraine bringing its vast agricultural resources to bear on solving the country's energy problems," says Robert Steele, who was a panelist in several of the sessions. Extensive research programs in biofuels development are ongoing in the college he oversees at Penn State.

The event, which attracted 125 participants from 12 countries, was held in Kyiv Dec. 9-11. It included two days of presentations and a field trip to a biofuel plant in the nearby city of Poltava. The summit agenda covered government policy issues, regional perspectives and an overview of the biofuel industry in the European Union, legal issues and market development.

Participants learned about cropping systems, traditional biofuel processing and new production methods involving cellulosic ethanol and alternative feedstocks, such as perennial grasses and lotus. The summit also focused on equipment and technologies, feedstock challenges, price competitiveness of biofuels, fuel crop insurance practices and impacts on the farming sector and the environment. "Summit participants concluded that use of traditional fuels along with biofuels would improve energy supplies and reduce dependence on oil resources," Steele says. "They also concluded that biofuel should not be viewed as an alternative to traditional fuel in the Ukraine. Instead, it should be viewed as complementary, and producers of both types of fuels should not be competitors."

Further development of the Ukrainian biofuel market is possible only if all players work together, summit participants concluded. They agreed to form a group to start negotiations with representatives of the country's fuel and energy sectors to establish an energy business union that would unite biofuel producers, producers of raw materials for biofuels and traditional fuel producers.

Among presenters at the summit were Tom Richard, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering and director of the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment; Greg Roth, agronomy professor and biofuels expert; and Glen Cauffman, manager of farm operations and facilities who was named a biofuel pioneer by a Pennsylvania environmental group last year. Helen Woskob, George Woskob and Larissa Woskob also presented at the opening of the conference.

In addition to the Woskob New Century Fund, other organizations supporting the biofuel summit in Ukraine were the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, the Civilian Research and Development Foundation and the Ukrainian Agrarian Foundation.

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EDITORS: For more information, contact Deanna Behring, director for international programs for Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, at 814-863-0249 or by e-mail at dmb37@psu.edu

Writer/Editor: Jeff Mulhollem 814-863-2719 jjm29@psu.edu