VIASPACE CTO Presents Giant King® Grass At Bioenergy Feedstocks Conference In Miami

WALNUT, Calif., June 13, 2016

The Conference, organized by Biofuels Digest (http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/), focused on the most critical issue in bioenergy today -- the availability of reliable feedstock, according to Biofuels Digest publisher, Mr. Jim Lane. The conference covered a wide variety of feedstocks including agricultural and forestry residues, municipal waste and dedicated energy crops, which included Giant King Grass, trees and algae, used for bioenergy, advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals and biomaterials. Topics included specific feedstocks and applications, and also supply chain management for reliable delivery of the feedstocks to the conversion customers.

Dr. Kukkonen's presentation was entitled: "Giant King Grass – Versatile Biomass for Bioenergy and Biorefineries" and was the leadoff presentation in the session dedicated to Energy Crops. The presentation covered Giant King Grass characteristics and applications for biopower/bioelectricity through direct combustion and anaerobic digestion, and for biofuels and biochemicals using its cellulosic sugars. Laboratory analysis data was presented for these applications and also for using Giant King Grass as a feedstock for bio coal, energy pellets and as a high nutrition animal feed for dairy cows and cattle.

Dr. Kukkonen stated, "It is rare to find a single crop that can cover as many applications as Giant King Grass. If you cut it at 6-7 feet tall every two months, it is excellent animal feed. If you wait another month and cut it at 10 feet tall, it produces large amounts of biogas through anaerobic digestion. If you wait six months and it is 15 feet tall, it is the right time for cutting Giant King Grass for direct combustion in a power plant, energy pellets and as a feedstock for biofuels and biochemicals."

Dr. Kukkonen remarked that he found the conference to be very valuable and made many new business contacts.  "I learned about a lot of other feedstocks, and each one may have its own niche, but none of them came close to the biomass yields of Giant King Grass.  This high yield characteristic makes Giant King Grass the lowest cost feedstock for any of the applications."

VIASPACE Chairman, Dr. Kevin Schewe, commented, "VIASPACE has established itself as a leading authority in the business universe of renewable energy crops. We are regularly invited to present our work with Giant King Grass at these high profile conferences. We continue to work hard and are very close to having significant bioenergy projects come to fruition in Nicaragua and elsewhere globally using GKG as the principle feedstock."

The VIASPACE presentation is available on the VIASPACE website www.VIASPACE.com. A picture from the conference is available on the VIASPACE Facebook page www.facebook.com/viaspaceinc.