Editorial pubs.acs.org/EF
Special Section for the 4th International Conference on Biorefinery− Toward Bioenergy To cope with the global energy and chemical resource crisis associated with rapid energy demand growths, governments all over the world as well as academia and industries have committed to the renewable and sustainable energy research and development, energy conservation and emission reduction, bio-inspired technology, and bio-based chemical development over the past few decades. Exploitation of biorefinery technologies will lead to the prospective pathway for ensuring the sustainable development of our society in the future. The 4th International Conference on Biorefinery−Toward Bioenergy, held between Dec 3 and 5, 2013, in Xiamen, China, aimed to provide a forum and bring scientists, engineers, and technologists together for an in-depth discussion on biorefinery technologies. Topics covered included feedstocks, pretreatment, biorefinery processes, bio-based materials and chemicals, synthetic biology and platform technology, and biomass evaluation. Over 200 participants from 13 countries gathered and attended 12 plenary lectures given by invited speakers and 92 oral presentations. Among these oral presentations and posters, some of the impressive, practical, and neoteric reports were selected for publication in this special section of Energy & Fuels. We do hope that these papers highlight the current status of biorefinery research and industry by providing novel experimental results, improved processes, and critical reviews on the up-to-date progress concerning biorefinery and also define the future trend of development in this field. Finally, we sincerely thank the editors and reviewers of Energy & Fuels for hosting the special section and also the sponsors, organizers, and co-organizers, who contributed to the successful conference. We hope that this special section will be helpful to the reader and that it might enhance academic exchanges between scholars and industries in the bioenergy field all over the world.
Lu Lin, Organizing Committee Chair and Guest Editor College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, People’s Republic of China
Shijie Liu, Organizing Committee Co-chair and Guest Editor
■
Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering College of Environmetnal Science and Forestry, State Universiy of New York, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS. The authors declare no competing financial interest. Special Issue: International Biorefinery Conference Received: June 19, 2014 Published: June 19, 2014 © 2014 American Chemical Society
4241
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ef501372p | Energy Fuels 2014, 28, 4241−4241