The PanAm RCN will hold its 2nd RCN Conference on Pan American Biofuels & Bioenergy Sustainability in September 2016 in Buenos Aires, Argentina in collaboration with AAIQ and AIChE, IfS and SBE.
The first Conference on Pan American Biofuels and Bioenergy Sustainability, co-organized by AIChE, IfS and SBE, was held on July 22-25, 2014 at the Golden Tulip Recife Palace hotel in Recife, Brazil.
The implications of large-scale biofuels and bioenergy production on environmental systems and social conditions are largely unknown. Yet despite this lack of fundamental sustainability knowledge, there currently is a rapid movement toward the development of biofuels and bioenergy production systems that will likely lead to dramatic changes in extant human and natural systems.
These changes may be beneficial or detrimental, and may involve a number of issues such as land ownership and management, creation of new employment opportunities, occupational safety, unforeseen transportation and logistical challenges, impacts on water availability and quality, and potentially many others changes to social and environmental systems.
An award to create a network of biofuels / bioenergy researchers and industry, government & NGO practitioners as a core group concerned with sustainable biofuels and bioenergy development across the Americas has been funded under NSF's Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) activities, which aim to address the challenges of creating a sustainable world.