David (Dave) Lanning is the Senior Engineer for Forest Concepts, LLC. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Washington in 2003.While at the university, Dave led a senior design project team that worked on low energy mechanical methods to produce Forest Concepts’ WoodStraw® products. At Forest Concepts, he leads development of the rotary shearing technology and equipment that is used to manufacture precision feedstock particles at a fraction of the traditional method’s energy consumption.Mr. Lanning is an active member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). As part of ASABE, Dave has chaired the ASE-12 Forest Engineering technical committee and the Applied Science and Engineering (ASE) technical community. Mr. Lanning has authored and co-authored numerous conference papers. He co-led a continued professional development (CPD) course on biomass assessment at ASABE’s AETC conference. Dave is recognized as an industry expert in woody and herbaceous biomass feedstocks processing.Dave’s research and development efforts leading the team at Forest Concepts have resulted in many of their novel core biomass processing technologies. This work has earned Dave 10 patents as lead inventor and an additional 17 patents as co-inventor. The rotary shear technology has also earned Dave three ASABE AE50 awards for innovative equipment entering the market.