OIT Times: Utah 2001 Industry Showcase Spells Success

September 21, 2001

OIT and the State of Utah hosted the Utah 2001 Industry Showcase at the Sheraton City Centre in Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding plants in the region on August 27-30. The showcase provided about 400 attendees with a range of solutions to energy problems recently confronting the aluminum, petroleum refining, metal casting, and mining industries in the west.

The Utah 2001 Industry Showcase opened with plant tours highlighting industrial energy efficiency best practices and advanced technologies. Plant tours were conducted by six companies, including Alcoa, Spanish Fork, UT (aluminum); MagCorp, Rowley Junction, UT (mining); Kennecott, Bingham Canyon, UT (mining); Flying J, North Salt Lake City, UT (petroleum refining); Silver Eagle, Woods Cross, UT (petroleum refining); Chevron, Salt Lake City, UT (petroleum refining).

Utah Governor Michael Leavitt and OIT Denise Swink signed a emorandum of Understandingin an opening ceremony. The memorandum signifies Utah (including the state, state agencies, universities, and local industry) as an official partner with DOE and OIT in the Industries of the Future strategy.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, keynote luncheon speaker, addressed the importance of Utah aluminum, metal casting, mining, and petroleum industries to the state and the nation. He also saluted OIT efforts for a successful showcase.

Utah Congressmen James Hansen, Chris Cannon and James Matheson hosted a congressional field hearing at the showcase and heard from three expert panels about the recent energy crisis and efforts to ameliorate it. Panelists included:

Panel I, including OIT Denise Swink, Mike Glenn, Program Manager for Utah Department of Natural Resources, and Lamont Tyler, Utah State Legislator, discussed the government perspectives and their goals and how partnerships contribute to achieving them.

Panel II, including Randy Overbey, Energy President for Alcoa, Jeff Utley, Refinery Manager for Flying J, Inc., Wayne Hale, Vice President & General Manager, Kennecott Utah Copper Corp., and Michael Legge, President of MagCorp, provided testimony on the challenges confronting their companies and the role of OIT Industries of the Future strategy in meeting those challenges.

Panel III, including J. Stephen Larkin, President of The Aluminum Association, Inc., Dwight Barnhard, Executive Vice President of the American Foundry Society, Red Cavaney, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, discussed how OIT Industries of the Future program benefits industry from the national industry perspective.

The showcase also offered breakout sessions that focused on technical issues and plant technologies, R&D, energy efficiency best practices, and state initiatives. The breakout sessions were organized into three tracks:

Industry est practicesand emerging technologies in aluminum, metal casting, mining, and petroleum refining.
Tools for energy efficient process optimization
Utah state ndustry of the Future initiatives

Over 40 exhibitors, including both private and public sector organizations such as Alcoa, the Cast Metals Coalition, Utah Energy Office and Dow Chemical Co. set up booths describing their advanced technologies and practices.

The Utah 2001 Industry Showcase was co-sponsored by DOE, the State of Utah, the Univ. of Utah, Alcoa, Chevron, Flying J, Kennecott Utah Copper, MagCorp, and Silver Eagle Inland Refining, Inc.