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Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume I, Issue 36, October 31, 2011 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

You didn’t hear it from Teru … but California’s Governor Brown called a Hey Rube! of his own this past Friday to get the goods on Conversion Technologies. It seems Jerry gathered a good cross-section of social, technical and political science whiz-kids together for a work session. Our questionably reliable sources say the round table was staged in the Gov’s own offices, and was blatantly lacking in all those Vested Interests and Position Advocates that are always happy to step up the any podium available. And no, we were not invited (big surprise) but a goodly number of the folks we deeply respect from all sides of the discussion, were called to the table.

 

Some time ago, I think we all figured out that (a) Conversion Technologies are available right now to cleanly recovery resources and remake our discards into electricity, fuels and other commodities (even if examples are in short supply in the Golden State), (b) the feedstock certainly is in over-abundance (40,000 tons a day of municipal solid waste collected for disposal in Los Angeles County alone), and (c) the Funding Folks in corporations, financial houses and military are making the moves. Why aren’t we seeing this common sense solution to Jobs, Economic Boost and Waste Management popping up everywhere? Conversion Technology implementation in California is as it is everywhere, a Political decision.

 

We’ll be nosing about for detail-scraps falling off Governor Brown’s CT working group and will get them posted post haste as discovered. We collectively elect these folks to lead, and sometimes they do. We’ve got our fingers crossed that this time common sense, sound economics, and a decent grasp of Science will prevail. 

Hey Rube!

Following the Gov’s lead, California state agencies are showing clear signs of cleaning house. CalRecycle, the Air Board, the Energy Commish and even the Department of Food and Ag are not just talking with each other, they are pushing ahead with a fresh look at who can best oversee what. Be prepared to provide our Industry’s perspective; a whole new wave of Stakeholder Engagement looms for resource recovery, clean alternative energy, better residual materials management practices and far less disposal. Keep an eye on our coverage, especially when we send up a flare and point to where you need to show up at a workshop or file your own comments.

The Week's Extra Reading

Teru was one of the featured speakers for the "Renewable Biofuels" session at the Clean Tech Showcase in Sacramento last week, and he has completed his Focus Report on the event.

The Week's News

MagneGas Secures $2.7MM Private Placement for Commercial Development Florida’s plasma waste to energy technology developer MagneGas Corporation has announced a $2.7 million private placement common stock transaction. 10/29/2011

 

Gevo’s Isobutanol Outperforms Ethanol in Small Engine Blended Fuel Tests    Colorado’s advanced renewable chemicals and fuels company Gevo Inc. has announced success in third party testing of its bio-sourced isobutanol as a gasoline blending additive. 10/29/2011

 

EBMUD Approves Lease for Viridis Fuels 20 MGD Biodiesel Plant

The Board of Directors of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) passed a resolution at last week’s regular meeting approving a lease agreement with Viridis Fuels of two 3-acre parcels for the construction of the firm’s biodiesel processing facility. 10/29/2011

 

Plasco Receives Approval for Ottawa Canada Waste Conversion Facility Plasco Energy Group Inc. has received Certificates of Approval from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for operation of its Trail Road plasma waste conversion facility in Ottawa, Canada. 10/28/2011 

 

Greenfreak Secures Styrofoam Thermal Treatment Contract with Recology    Yuba City, California start-up company Greenfreak Recycling, LLC has signed a contract with Recology, Inc to process Styrofoam or expanded polystyrene (EPS) in Yuba, Sutter, and Butte counties using Greenfreak’s Chinese-sourced mobile thermal densification equipment. 10/28/2011

 

ZeaChem Raises Additional $19MM to Advance Cellulosic Biorefinery Platform    Cellulosic biorefinery firm ZeaChem has announced raising an additional $19 million in Series C investments to advance its commercial production of parallel fermentation and thermochemical processing to advanced biofuels and biochemicals. 10/28/2011

 

CR&R Waste to Energy Project Nears CEQA Certification

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has provided the county’s Board of Supervisors with an update on Phase III and IV of its Southern California Conversion Technology Demonstration Project, singling out CR&R Waste and Recycling Services for its progress as one of the three teams signatory to April 20, 2010 Memoranda of Understanding. 10/28/2011

 

California Investor Seeks Opportunities in Water, Energy, or Ag Technologies    The Water, Energy and Technology (WET) Center of the Central Valley Business Incubator (CVBI) is assisting a local investor to assess potential equity investments of up to $3 million each. 10/27/2011

 

Joint EU Biorefinery Vision for 2030 Predicts Increased Use of Cellulosic Biomass    The Strategic Research Targets for 2020 – Collaboration Initiative on Biorefineries (Star-COLIBRI) project has released the report, Joint European Union Biorefinery Vision for 2030. 10/27/2011

 

Georgia County Breaks Ground on Landfill Gas to Renewable Fuels Facility    DeKalb County, Georgia held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new Renewable Fuels Facility that will convert landfill gas to fuel. 10/27/2011

 

Successful Plasma Conversion of Waste to Energy + Fuel Cells in Korea  Canadian fuel cell development company Ballard Power Systems has announced successful operation and export of power to South Korea’s electricity grid. 10/27/2011

 

California Fire Safe Council Announces 2012 WUI Grants

This year, the California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) received 196 proposals totaling more than $16.5 million in requested support for the USDA Forest Service State Fire Assistance (SFA) grant funding to be distributed in 2012. 10/26/2011

 

UMaine Researchers Develop Contaminant-Tolerant Biomass to Liquid Fuel   The University of Maine Chemical and Biological Engineering Department has announced successful development of a two-step biomass to liquid fuel conversion mixed carboxylate platform that is resilient to contaminants and flexible in feedstock. 10/26/2011

 

UK’s Huhne: Renewable Technologies Will Deliver Third Industrial Revolution  The Secretary of State of United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) gave a key speech today, addressing attendees at an annual Renewables conference with strong support for renewable energy technology and waste conversion. 10/26/2011

 

ConocoPhillips 2011 Energy Prize Awards Include BioChar, Biofuels  Congratulations are certainly due to the Aerostat inventors who won this year’s ConocoPhillips / Penn State Energy Prize awards just announced, but we’re partial to the first and second place runners-up. 10/25/2011

 

TGEG Gets One Billion Euro Credit Line for MSW Gasification to Energy  True Green Energy Group (TGEG) has confirmed an agreement with the CJ consortium for a 1 billion Euro line of credit (about US $1.35 billion) to expand their business development globally and fund Bio Green power plants. 10/25/2011

 

Flotech Shifts Focus toward GreenLane Biogas Expansion

The Flotech Group, internationally known for gas compression, cooling, and heat exchange systems, has announced a shift in the firm’s growth strategy more focused on its subsidiary GreenLaneTM Biogas. 10/25/2011

 

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Featured Events:

Global Clean Energy Congress & Exhibition  
Global Clean Energy Congress & Exhibition
November 1-3, 2011
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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The Waste Conversion
Congress - West Coast
December 6-7, 2011
San Jose, California

 

 

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Teru Talk is an online publication of JDMT, Inc with the goal of opening the dialogue and providing current news and commentary on issues and successes associated with waste conversion to renewable energy, biofuels and other bio-based products for resource recovery.

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The Teru Talk Newsletter is published weekly or more or less frequently, primarily depending on what is going on in the world of waste conversion or ours.