AWBA Conference Agenda  

Welcome  

Join us for the official grand opening of the conference! Hear a warm welcome and updates from AWBA President Darrell Smith and Chairman of the board, Thomas Reilley.

Powering the Future: The Role of Carbon, Infrastructure, and Innovation 

The energy landscape is evolving rapidly as demand grows for reliable power, advanced manufacturing, and lower-carbon industrial solutions. Meeting these needs will require innovation, strategic infrastructure investment, and new approaches to energy and carbon management. 

In this opening keynote, Charles McConnell, Executive Director of the Center for Carbon Management in Energy at the University of Houston, will examine the forces reshaping the future of energy, the critical role of infrastructure and carbon management, and how emerging technologies are creating new opportunities for industrial and economic growth. 

Global Market Overview

Fiona Matthews of Hawkins Wright Ltd., a leading independent consultancy recognized for its expertise in bioenergy market intelligence, will deliver a comprehensive global market overview. Her presentation will highlight the latest trends, key market dynamics, and emerging opportunities that are shaping the future of bioenergy worldwide.

Networking Break & Speed Networking – Connect with attendees from across the renewable carbon value chain through structured networking.

What It Takes to Build a New Industry: Lessons from Twenty Years of Renewable Carbon Development

Over the past two decades, Ben Thorp has worked alongside companies developing the next generation of woody biomass technologies and projects. Drawing on that experience—and dozens of real-world case studies—he distills the most important lessons on what drives commercial success, where projects encounter obstacles, and what today's innovators can learn from those who have gone before them.

From Demand to Development: Building the Next Generation of Projects

Meeting future demand will require more than buyers—it will require developers, investors, engineers, and technology providers capable of bringing projects to life.

This discussion explores how emerging renewable carbon projects are moving from concept to commercialization and what project developers need from the broader value chain to succeed.

Technology Innovation: Unlocking New Value from Woody Biomass

From sustainable aviation fuel and renewable chemicals to carbon removal and dispatchable power, a new generation of conversion technologies is creating opportunities for woody biomass across multiple markets.

Technology developers will discuss the processes, innovations, and commercial readiness of the technologies shaping the future of renewable carbon.

Woody Biomass and Advanced Fuels: What Will It Take to Scale?

‍As SAF and other advanced-fuels markets expand and diversify, woody biomass is attracting increasing attention as a potential feedstock. But turning that opportunity into meaningful demand will require alignment between fuel markets, project developers, biomass suppliers, and the companies' sourcing and processing feedstock.

This session will explore where woody biomass can realistically fit in the advanced-fuels market, what projects need from feedstock and supply chains, how major energy companies are evaluating the opportunity, and what capabilities the established biomass industry can bring to this emerging market.

Networking Break: Connect by Topic – Join informal discussions organized around key markets and industry topics.

The Policy Landscape: What Industry Should Be Watching

From Washington to Brussels, policy decisions are reshaping markets, influencing investment, and creating new opportunities for woody biomass.    
                                                                                                                                                                   
This session brings together U.S. and European policy experts to discuss the legislative, regulatory, and trade developments companies should be watching, and what they could mean for market growth, investment, and business strategy in the years ahead.

The Biocarbon Opportunity: Market, Standards & Commercial Reality

Biocarbon is attracting growing interest across steelmaking, carbon removal, agriculture, and other emerging markets—but how much of the opportunity is real, and what will it take to scale? This discussion examines the commercial outlook for biocarbon, the role of standards and certification, feedstock competition, carbon markets, and the practical realities of bringing new projects to market.

Whether you're evaluating a new investment or simply trying to understand where the industry is headed, this session offers a grounded look at one of woody biomass's fastest-evolving opportunities.

Welcome Reception – Network with speakers, exhibitors, and industry leaders while continuing the day's conversations.

Bridging the Gap: Sustaining Forest Supply Chains Through Market Transition

New markets for woody biomass are emerging, but the forest supply chains needed to support them are under increasing pressure. Mill closures, declining pulpwood demand, workforce shortages, and infrastructure challenges are creating uncertainty across the forest sector.This session will examine how forest landowners, loggers, and industry leaders are navigating today's market transition while preparing for future growth.

Panelists will explore the investments, partnerships, and market signals needed to maintain the people, equipment, and infrastructure required to support the next generation of biomass markets.

Fiber at Scale: What New Biomass Projects Need to Get Right

New biomass projects may be entering a favorable fiber market, but securing material is only one part of the equation. Plant scale, procurement radius, transportation, residual availability, quality and handling infrastructure can ultimately determine whether a project works at commercial scale.

This session brings together leaders with deep experience sourcing, processing and managing industrial-scale fiber supply to explore what new biomass projects need to understand about resource availability, procurement, logistics, quality, sustainability and supply-chain infrastructure before they build.

Global Shipping Outlook: Risks, Routes, and Freight Markets for Wood Pellets

Global wood pellet trade depends on reliable, cost-effective ocean transportation, but shipping markets are being shaped by a growing range of operational, geopolitical, and regulatory pressures.

In this session, Steven Rzehak, Partner at Mid-Ship Group, will provide an update on the global dry bulk market and examine the key factors affecting wood pellet movements, including freight rates, vessel availability, trade routes, transit constraints, and evolving policy and regulatory conditions.

Networking Break & Speed Networking – Connect with attendees from across the renewable carbon value chain through structured networking.

The New World of Sustainability: When Products, Markets, and Standards Collide

As woody biomass expands beyond traditional heat and power into sustainable aviation fuel, methanol, renewable diesel, carbon removal, and other markets, the sustainability landscape is becoming increasingly complex. Requirements can vary by product, pathway, end use, and jurisdiction, creating new challenges for companies operating across global supply chains.
                                                                                                       
This presentation explores how these frameworks overlap and diverge, what happens as biomass moves through different products and markets, and what companies need to understand as the renewable carbon economy becomes increasingly interconnected.

Standards as Market Infrastructure: Certification, Traceability & MRV

As biomass markets evolve, standards play a critical role in enabling transparency, consistency, and market access.

This session will explore how certification systems, carbon accounting methodologies, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) frameworks, and traceability tools create confidence, reduce risk, and support investment across the woody biomass value chain.

Panelists will discuss how standards are evolving to support emerging applications and what producers, investors, and end users will expect in the years ahead.

From Space to Supply Chain: Using NASA Earth Observation to Understand Working Forests

NASA and Chainparency discuss a new collaboration combining satellite-based Earth observation with digital supply-chain data to provide greater visibility into forest conditions and working forest supply chains.

The session will explore how these tools can help monitor forest health, identify emerging risks, strengthen traceability, and support more resilient biomass and forest-products supply chains.  

Global Signals, Local Impacts: Navigating the Evolution of International Biomass Markets

The woody biomass industry is increasingly influenced by developments beyond national borders. Policy decisions, sustainability frameworks, and evolving market signals continue to shape discussions around investment, supply chains, and future demand across the global biomass sector. In this session, Drax will share insights on key international policy and market developments, including emerging changes in the UK and Europe.

The discussion will explore how evolving policy frameworks are influencing biomass demand and market dynamics, and the opportunities these developments could present for biomass value chains in the United States and internationally..

Engineering Confidence in Advanced Solid Biofuels

Producing advanced solid biofuel pellets at commercial scale requires confidence in both feedstock performance and process design. This session will explore the engineering considerations behind consistent pellet quality, reliable production, and the development of higher-value solid biofuels for emerging markets.

Valuing Reliability: A New Driver of Biomass Demand

As Europe adds more intermittent renewable generation, the value of reliable, dispatchable power is growing. From capacity markets to new support mechanisms for low-carbon generation, countries are taking different approaches to ensuring power is available when it is needed.

This session explores how these evolving market structures could create new opportunities for biomass generation and what they could mean for future woody biomass demand.

Networking Break: Connect by Topic – Continue discussions and build new connections around key industry topics.

C-Suite Insights: Navigating the Next Era of Woody Biomass

Senior executives from across the global woody biomass industry will share their perspectives on the forces shaping the sector’s next chapter. The discussion will examine market demand, producer strategy, supply-chain pressures, policy and investment trends, and where industry leaders see the greatest opportunities for growth and resilience in the years ahead.

Closing Reception – Celebrate two days of learning while building lasting connections across the renewable carbon value chain.

Exhibitor Move-Out

Breakfast