The 6th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE2018) was held in Wuhan successfully

      With the global energy transition, the 6^th International Conference on Biomass Energy (ICBE 2018) was held in Wuhan successfully from October 16 to 19, 2018 to further explore the future development of the biomass energy industry and promote the exchange and innovation of biomass energy academia. The conference was co-chaired by Prof. Zhenhong Yuan, Director of the Biomass Energy Committee of China Renewable Energy Society, Senior Fellow of the Guangzhou Energy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. John (Jack) N. Saddler from the University of British Columbia, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. More than 500 delegates from more than 10 countries including China, the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Ireland, Korea, Thailand and Hungary participated in the event.

      The opening ceremony was presided over by Prof. Hanping Chen, Executive Chairman of the Conference, from State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Baoshan Li, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of China Renewable Energy Society, Zhenhong Yuan, Director of Biomass Energy Committee of China Renewable Energy Society, John (Jack) N. Saddler, Fellow of Royal Canadian Association, Longlong Ma, Director of Guangzhou Energy Institute and Chairman of Biomass Energy Innovation Alliance (BEIA) and Xinliang Zhang, Vice President of Huazhong University of Science and Technology gave the welcome speech.

      Prof. John (Jack) N. Saddler, from the University of British Columbia, Canada, Prof. Chuangzhi Wu, President of Guangzhou Institute of Energy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. George W. Huber, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Prof. Jin-Suk Lee, from the Korea Institute of Energy Research Daejeon (KIER), South Korea, Vijay Singh, from the University of Illinois-Champaign, Prof. Xiaotao Bi, from the University of British Columbia, Canada, fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Prof. Curt Wentrup from the University of Queensland, fellows of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, Prof. Shijie Liu from the State University of New York (SUNY) and Prof. Hanping Chen from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, gave the plenary speech to encourage people to think about the new theory and technologies for conversion of biomass energy in clean, high efficient and  high-value added ways.

      The conference was jointly organized by Biomass Energy Committee of China Renewable Energy Society, Biomass Energy Innovation Alliance and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and it was co-organized by Forest Bioproducts Division of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE-FBD), China-Canada Bioenergy Centre (C-CBC) and China Recycling Economy Association renewable energy Specialized Committee. It was hosted by Institute of New Energy, Wuhan and Hubei Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Research Institute, and it was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Wuhan Optical Valley Blue-fire New Energy Co. Ltd and Thermo Fisher Scientific, etc.

      The topics of the conference included policy strategy and microalgae utilization, liquid biofuel, gaseous biofuel, biomass pellets and power, biomass polygeneration, platform technology etc. At the same time, the International Biomass Energy Progress Summit, the China-USA Progress in Biomass Conversion Technologies Seminar and the China-Canada Bioenergy Seminar were held which provided a good platform for the comprehensive exchange and cooperation of scholars at home and abroad.

      The conference received more than 280 abstracts, including 9 invited reports, 41 keynote reports, 81 oral reports and 80 posters. In order to encourage the outstanding performance of the delegates at the meeting, 8 "Excellent Paper Awards" and 8 "Excellent Poster Awards" were selected from the on-site oral reports and posters. Ana Isabel Ferreiro from the Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal won the first prize for the best oral presentation, and Dingding Yao from Huazhong University of Science and Technology won the first prize for the best poster.

      In the morning of October 19^th, more than 100 experts and scholars visited the biomass pyrolysis for Multi-generation and Multi-supply demonstration plant in Ezhou, Hubei Province, which was designed by Huazhong University of Science and Technology and constructed by Wuhan Optical Valley Blue-fire New Energy Co. Ltd.

     This is the sixth Biomass Energy International Conference series (formally named International Conference on Biomass Energy Technologies) in China after the first five successful conferences held in Guangzhou 2008, Beijing 2010, Nanjing 2012, Changsha 2014 and Beijing 2016, respectively. It is also the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Biomass Energy. The 7^th Biomass Energy International Conference will be held in Xiamen in 2020.