Teru Talk
Newsletter
Volume I, Issue 33,
October 10,
2011
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's
Trash Talk
Almost
every community has
more stuff thrown away
every day than it can
afford to manage. From
what I've seen,
communities in Japan
get closest in their
approach to Zero Waste
with government
enforcement and ensured
by well-ensconced
social mores against
NOT reusing and
recycling every last
scrap. Standard
practice bottle-and-can
recycling doesn't often
make a community money;
in fact it generally
costs more than it
brings in. That said,
recycling is still
among the best things
we as a People can do
as a means of social
sanity. About half of
the remaining
"post-recycling"
garbage that goes to
the dump is so nasty,
because thrown-out food
is so "putrescible" … I
suppose if stuff didn't
rot so easily, a lot
less would get tossed
(but then it isn't
food).
All
over the globe
communities are doing
the math and figuring
out it is cheaper to
gather up the food
scraps and feed that
rich mulch to microbes
in exchange for methane
to make electricity,
heat, fuel and
chemicals. And
Surprise! If you add
food waste to animal
poop in an anaerobic
digester, those
microbes are happier,
work faster and make
more biogas, all while
cleaning up our manure
and sewage better. The
United Kingdom has made
up their collective
mind that Food Waste
Co-Digestion is the way
to go. London keeps
ramping up the
thousands of households
in their food waste
collection program.
Scotland's got their
own version now of Zero
Waste and it depends
largely on effective
food waste conversion
(I love what they're
doing with Whisky
left-overs). Not to be
outdone, Wales now
sports their first
major AD
plant.
We
rattle on about Food vs
Fuel, all while we
throw away more
foodstuff than we eat.
Talk about low-hanging
fruit: we've got the
collection
infrastructure with a
slight variation on the
containers distributed;
we've got the know-how
and the facilities with
our Big City wastewater
treatment plants. We
know now how to
un-package, how to
pre-treat. We can train
the bugs to make far
more than just methane.
We already have figured
out how to clean up,
dry out, reform and
refine the biogas. And
now we understand how
to turn that gas into
just about any other
hydrocarbon-based
product we might need.
Guess we better pass
out the buckets and get
busy; this is one of
the few "clean up the
environment" things we
can do to these days
that makes more money
than it
costs.
Hey
Rube!
Sometimes it
seems that the Business of
Government is primarily to
protect us from ourselves.
It doesn't help any that
lawmakers are measured by
the number of bills they
introduce. California's
Governor Jerry Brown, who
is apparently Reading Every
Bill lain on his desk,
vetoed one recently with
the comment, "Not every
human problem deserves a
law." When our lawmakers'
staff (who actually run the
government's legislative
branch) are zealously
spewing out proposed
legislation, take a tip
from Jerry: look over your
representative's broad
shoulders and see how many
of those bills should
simply be Round-Filed. And
say
so.
The Week's
News
CEC
Energy Innovation Small
Grants Include Biopower
and Biofuels
Projects
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) awarded
twelve grants totaling
$985,490 from the Public
Interest Energy Research
(PIER) division's Energy
Innovation Small Grants
(EISG) program, including
two grants of $95,000 each
supporting research and
development of biomass
energy and fuels processing
sub-systems.
10/08/2011
EPA
Forms Biogenic CO2
Emissions Panel and
Schedules First Public
Meeting
The US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Science Advisory Board
(SAB) has formed an ad hoc
Panel to review the draft
Accounting Framework for
Biogenic CO2 Emissions from
Stationary Sources
submitted by the Office of
Atmospheric Programs (OAP)
in September 2011.
10/08/2011
First
Reserve Makes €300
Million Strategic
Investment in
Abengoa
International firm Abengoa
has announced an equity
investment of €300 million
(about USD 398 million) by
First Reserve Corporation
(FRC). FRC will initially
receive over 17 million
Class B unlisted shares of
new equity for an
investment of €17.5 per
share, plus a position on
the Board and rights to
purchase additional shares
over time.
10/08/2011
BioCee
Signs License Agreement
for Verenium
Bio-Desulfurization
Technology
Minnesota based BioCee Inc.
has signed a commercial
agreement with San Diego
based Verenium Corporation
to purchase assets and
license the biocatalyst
specialist firm's
proprietary organisms and
bio-desulfurization
technology.
10/07/2011
UK's
Institute of Food
Research Launches
Biorefinery
Centre
The Institute of Food
Research (IFR) in the
United Kingdom has
announced the launch of a
Biorefinery Centre focused
on producing low-carbon
footprint transport biofuel
in collaboration with Lotus
Engineering and other
partners.
10/07/2011
Clean
Energy Trust Adds $100K
Challenge Grand
Prize
Update to our News about
the Clean Energy Challenge
last month: the Clean
Energy Trust (CET) has
added a Grand Prize of
$100,000 to this
year's Challenge, expanding
it to include the top
student business concept.
10/07/2011
Cyclone's Clean
Tech Engine Receives
Patents in 10 European
Countries
Florida's all-fuel clean
tech engine specialist
Cyclone Power Technologies
has
received
patents protecting its
proprietary reciprocating
Rankine cycle engine in ten
European countries.
10/06/2011
Biotechnology
Company Dyadic Raises
$3MM in Convertible
Private
Placement
Dyadic International has
announced completion of
convertible private
placement notes bringing in
$3 million for use as
working capital including
research, development and
new product placements.
10/06/2011
Greenleaf
Biofuels Secures Full
Biodiesel Facility
Funding
Connecticut based Greenleaf
Biofuels has secured full
funding necessary for
completing its 10 million
gallon per year multiple
feedstock biodiesel
production facility.
10/06/2011
Shanks
Energen JV Opens Food
Waste-to-Biogas AD Plant
in
Scotland
The Energen Biogas joint
venture (JV) with Shanks
Waste Management has
officially opened a 60,000
tonne per year anaerobic
digestion (AD) facility in
Cumbernauld, near Glasgow,
Scotland.
10/05/2011
ArborGen
Teams with University of
Florida on Loblolly Pine
for Biofuel
Project
South Carolina based
ArborGen will participate
on a University of Florida
led research team focused
on advancing pine-sourced
biofuels.
10/05/2011
ThermoEnergy,
ProfiNutrients,
Multiform Harvest
Partner for Nutrient
Recovery
Massachusetts company
ThermoEnergy have announced
a partnership with
Netherlands based
ProfiNutrient BV for
marketing ThermoEnergy's
controlled atmosphere
separation technology
(CAST) ammonia recovery
process (ARPTM)
in Europe.
10/05/2011
Toyota
Lab Develops New
High-Production
Cellulosic Ethanol
Yeast
Toyota Motor Corporation
(TMC) showcased new
technology at its Toyota
Biotechnology and
Afforestation Laboratory in
Miyoshi City in the Aichi
prefecture, including the
development of a new yeast
strain for fermentation of
biofuel from cellulosic
feedstock.
10/04/2011
ISU
Researchers Use Fast
Pyrolysis to Convert
Biomass to Sugar for
Biofuels
Dr. Robert Brown's
engineering laboratory at
Iowa State University (ISU)
has announced optimization
of a thermal conversion
technology called Fast
Pyrolysis to break down
cellulosic feedstock like
straw and corn silage to
inexpensively turn biomass
into what he calls
"pyrolytic molasses."
10/04/2011
Gevo
Will Supply
Alcohol-to-Jet Fuel to
US Air Force for
Testing
Colorado-based Gevo has
been awarded a contract by
the Defense Logistics
Agency (DLA) to supply
biofuel for a US Air Force
(USAF) program of jet
engine testing and flight
feasibility demonstration.
10/04/2011
Anaerobic
Ammonium Oxidation
Converts Urine to Rocket
Fuel
Researchers at the Water
and Wetlands Institute of
Radboud University Nijmegen
in the Netherlands report
success in determining the
molecular mechanism called
anammox (anaerobic ammonium
oxidation) that converts
ammonia to hydrazine, a
compound used as rocket
fuel, N2H4.
10/03/2011
International
Team Identifies Heat
Tolerant Fungi for
Biofuels
Production
An international team of
scientists has anounced
collaborative results
comparing two temperature
tolerant (thermophyllic)
fungi whose enzymes very
efficiently break down
cellulose and
hemi-cellulose to
fermentable simple sugars
in elevated temperatures
common to industrial
biofuels production
practices, from 40º to 75º
Centigrade.
10/03/2011
Toilet
Bike NEO Operates Using
On-Board Waste to Biogas
AD System
Japan's number one toilet
maker TOTO has designed a
toilet-motorcycle hybrid
called Toilet Bike "NEO"
that runs entirely on
biogas.
10/03/2011
The Week's
Action Items
Due
10/25/2011: LOI for USDA
Sustainable Bioenergy
AFRI
Grant
Due
12/15/2011: Proposals
for Sustainable
Bioenergy AFRI
Grant
The U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) National
Institute of Food and
Agriculture (NIFA) requests
proposals for the
Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative -
Sustainable Bioenergy (Sol#
USDA-NIFA-AFRI-003536).
10/04/2011
Due
11/17/2011: Proposals to
NYSERDA for Biofuels
& Bioproducts
Development
The New York State Energy
Research and Development
Authority (NYSERDA) has
released a Request for
Proposals (RFP; reference
PON# 2331) "to facilitate
the development of
innovative and
environmentally responsible
biomass feedstock
technologies and
bioproducts, including
biofuels, bioproducts used
for heat or power
production, biochemicals
and other bioproducts."
10/04/2011
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