The aim of The World Bioenergy Award is to recognize the efforts made of a person who has made a difference in a crucial way that has furthered the development of the bioenergy sector in different fields.

We got 90 nominations from all continents representing 19 different nationalities. Also the nominations represented a broad range of professional areas. It was not an easy task for the jury as every single proposal received important arguments to support its nomination. The jury consisted of World Bioenegy Association Board and organisers of World Bioenergy 2010.

After a voting process seven of the nominees stood out as the main nominees for the World Bioenergy Award 2010. One will be announced as the winner on May 25 in the opening plenary session of World Bioenergy 2010.

The nominees represent the following countries: Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, New Zealand, Sweden, USA

The winner will be announced during the World Bioenergy 2010´s Opening Ceremony on 25th May. Here you can see the name of the nominees and a brief abstract of their nomination.

Professor Laércio Couto, Renabio, Brazil

Professor Laércio Couto is nominated for his innovative research on short rotation eucalyptus in Brazil and for working with industry to implement the use of eucalyptus in high density, short rotation plantations and in agro forestry systems for the production of biomass for energy. He has served as the Brazilian Team Leader to the IEA’s Bioenergy Task 30 on Short Rotation Crops. He also founded the Brazilian Network of Biomass for Energy (RENABIO), and began “hands on” research in 2003 to determine the optimal planting densities for short rotation eucalyptus for bioenergy. A significant portion of new eucalyptus plantings established primarily for biomass energy will utilize either the agro forestry or the high density planting technologies developed by Dr. Laércio Couto.

Professor Pentti Hakkila, Finland

Professor Pentti Hakkila has authored in excess of 400 scientific publications and innumerable other publications, producing much of the decision support that has been needed in moving Sweden and Finland from almost total fossil fuel dependency in the 1970's to the present situation where over 1/4 of the energy utilization is based on forest biomass. With leading roles in practical experiments and in extension he has accelerated the process of designing efficient and economical technology and methods for forest fuel harvesting. Thanks to his strong international profile, his contributions are not delimited to the Finnish or Scandinavian arena, but truly international.

Dr. Dilip Ranade, Agharkar Research Institute, India

Dr. Dilip Ranade is a pioneering researcher in the area of biomethanation, responsible for the establishment of the research laboratory at ARI, Pune for biomethanation of various industrial waste and biomass, and biohydrogen, anaerobic bacteria, methanogens and culture collection of anaerobes and methanogens. He has worked on biogas production from Cattle waste, guiding poor farmers to help them build themselves as leading farmers on the technology for biogas formation guided by Dr Ranade.

Professor Ralph Sims, Massey University and IEA,

New Zealand

Professor Ralph Sims is not only a leading scholar in the field of bioenergy research, but also an important promoter of bioenergy on the global arena. His book "Bioenergy options for a cleaner environment" is considered by many to be like a global Bible for knowledge about bioenergy. He is also a voice for bioenergy in the International Energy Agency (IEA) and many other fora.

Mr. Harry Stokes, Project Gaia Inc. and Gaia Association, USA

By developing and funding Project Gaia to improve the health and livelihood of millions of families in the developing world, Harry Stokes leads a global initiative that promotes clean alcohol fuels for cooking for the three billion people who subsist today on solid fuels. The Project Gaia initiative seeks to alleviate poverty by addressing energy poverty. Mr. Stokes has encouraged many young African professionals to advocate for clean fuels. Rather than just settle for burning dung, charcoal and wood more efficiently in better solid fuel stoves, Gaia aspire to clean liquid biofuel stoves that are no less in quality and performance to what other parts of the world have available. The vision is clean, efficient, safe and affordable cooking fuel and stoves for African homes.

Mr. Bernt Svensén, Business region Göteborg, Sweden

Mr Bernt Svensén is completely devoted to the development of a biogas industry using biogas as a vehicle fuel both in heavy and private vehicles. Mr. Svensén emphasizes the market development as the most important factor together with a strong regional development along with a national infrastructure. To work with the whole chain from fuel production to vehicles demands a great knowledge about biogas and market development. Mr. Svensén made it possible through creating the project Biogas Väst.

Mr. John Swaan, Canada

Mr John Swaan arranged the first ever long-distance transport of wood pellets to Europe (Vancouver to Sweden) and in doing so proved that long-distance transport of biomass could be done economically. Since 1998 Canadian exports to the EU have grown to more than 1 million tonnes and now 0.5 million tonnes are also shipped from the US South East and several thousand tonnes are now shipped from Australia. The possibility of opening up much larger volumes of traded biomass, in particular from Third World countries, not only will better enable EU countries to achieve renewable biofuel and GHG emission targets, but it will provide socioeconomic benefit to needy countries.

Who will be the winner?