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Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume I, Issue 37, November 7, 2011 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

The 2008 Farm Bill funded USDA Rural Development to create and support a Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels. Last week, Uncle Ag handed out almost $45 million in payments to 156 Advanced Biofuel Producers for 2011. To get the dole you must enroll, and if you want the dime you can’t be makin’ “corn likker”. In fact, by our count, more than half the payments went to folks making advanced biofuels from some form of waste material. Biofuels can be made from the conversion of the organic part of municipal, industrial, and agricultural WASTE: food waste, yard waste, wood waste, crop waste, sewage waste, animal waste, manufacturing waste, and even simply carbon-laden gaseous emissions.

 

What a concept: making something we need from waste. Gee, if we do THAT, we won't have to throw as much garbage and trash in holes in the ground. In fact, if we "cleanly" do almost ANYTHING else with the stuff besides landfill it, we're better off. Lots of complaints are heard about how we'll never reach our renewable fuels goals, how we just can't grow enough or collect enough or somehow MAKE enough feedstock to get us to those mandated national alternative fuel volume levels. Has anybody actually compared the humongous tonnage of waste still being packed into landfills to the amount of electricity, syngas, biogas, liquid and solid fuel we need? That waste can be converted to renewable energy using what we know right now.

 

So if we've got copious waste material as feedstock, clean conversion tools, combined public/private smarts and screaming global market demand, WHY in the world do we keep "disposing"?

Hey Rube!

Every Enviro-Centric group on the planet has had their communal hand out for as long as any of us remember. Just Ask People and they’ll send in the bucks. Just Ask People and your good intentions get a budget. Seals and Whales, Bugs and Butterflies certainly can’t raise money on their own, ya know. Well, these days neither can Industry, it seems … and yet there’s a lot of Eco-Industry out there with ideas that just might save the game. Maybe all we need to do is just Ask People nicely. See our news last week about the new website PeopleFund.it in the UK

The Week's News

Start-Up Ceremony Held for FarmGen’s AD Waste to Energy Plant in UK Farmgen’s anaerobic digestion (AD) of grass silage and other crops and crop wastes from the region’s agriculture at Dryholme Farm near Silloth, Cumbria, is now sending 1.2 megawatts of renewable electric power to the regional grid. 11/06/2011

 

Eastman Renewable Materials Acquires TetraVitae’s Bio-Catalysis Technology Eastman Renewable Materials, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eastman Chemical Company, has announced acquisition of the assets of Chicago-based biocatalysis specialist firm TetraVitae Bioscience, Inc. (formerly Advanced BioFuel, Inc). 11/04/2011

 

California Bioresources Presentations Are Now Online

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Southwest Region 9 hosted the 6th Annual California Bioresources Alliance symposium on September 13 and 14 in Sacramento, California, and Teru was there. The EPA has now posted the Symposium Agenda and the available slide presentations from both days 11/03/2011

 

Amtrak Reports Success in Heartland Flyer 20% Biodiesel Blend Test  Amtrak has announced a successful year-long trial using a 20% biodiesel blended with 80% standard petroleum-sourced diesel (B20) in the company’s Oklahoma City to Fort Worth “Heartland Flier”. 11/03/2011

 

Ensilaged Fresh Rice Biomass to Ethanol Processing Will Work on the Farm Japanese researchers have proven efficient ethanol production and vapor extraction from ensilaged rice biomass that has been treated with enzymes. 11/03/2011

 

PeopleFund.It Solicits Funding for Oxford Biochar Start-Up

A new form of start-up financing for green projects has just launched by United Kingdom (UK) based PeopleFund.it. 11/03/2011

 

ADBA Publishes Anaerobic Digestion Due Diligence and Financing Guides The United Kingdom’s (UK) non-profit Anaerobic Digestion and Biogas Association (ADBA) has developed two key documents in association with the UK’s Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), as part of the Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan. 11/02/2011

 

USDA Announces $44.6 MM Funding for Advanced Biofuels Producers The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the 2011 round of Farm Bill payments total $44.6 million dispersed among 156 advanced biofuels producers under the USDA’s Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels. 11/02/2011

 

Canadian Utility to Install 1st GE ORegen Waste Heat Recovery System The Canadian utility NRGreen Power plans to partner with GE for installation of its first ORegen™ waste heat recovery system at Alliance Pipeline’s Windfall Compressor Station near the remote Alberta, Canada community of Whitecourt. 11/02/2011

 

New SABIC Venture Capital Arm Focuses on Clean Tech Investments The Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) has launched a new global venture capital arm, SABIC Ventures, funding a portfolio from seed to late stage investments in advanced materials and composites, alternative feedstocks for chemicals and materials and alternative energy and clean technology. 11/01/2011

 

Amyris Receives R$22MM Funding for First Biofene® Production Facility in Brazil California’s renewable chemicals and fuels company Amyris has received final approval from Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) for R$22 million in project financing for the company’s first industrial-scale production facility located in Piracicaba, São Paulo. 11/01/2011

 

HECO Selects Renewable Energy Group (again) for 3-7 MGY Biodiesel Supply The Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) has once again awarded the contract to Renewable Energy Group (REG ) to supply sustainable biodiesel for HECO’s 110 megawatt combustion turbine generator at the Campbell Industrial Park Generating Station. 11/01/2011

 

SSE to Construct 108MW Multi-Fuel Biomass / Waste-to-Energy Facility in UK The United Kingdom’s 2nd largest generation business, SSE Generation, has received a letter of approval on the authority of the Secretary of State of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to construct and operate a £250 million, 108 megawatt (MW) multi-fuel (biomass and refuse derived fuel) generating station adjacent to the existing Ferrybridge coal plant in West Yorkshire, with all planning permission granted. 10/31/2011

 

BlueFire Signs MOU for Chinese Investment in Integrated Biorefinery in Mississippi California-based BlueFire Renewables, Inc., has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China Huadian Engineering Co., Ltd, for investment in its Fulton, Mississippi multi-feedstock integrated biorefinery. Huadian will initially invest in company equity and holds the option to later provide Fulton project debt financing. 10/31/2011

The Week's Action Items

Due 12/30/2011: Comments to California’s Draft Green Chemistry Regs The California Department of Toxic Substances (DTSC) has released informal “Draft Regulations for Safer Consumer Products” for public review and comment, and scheduled a workshop on December 5, 2011 to continue the agency’s on-going discussion of the green chemistry regulations. 11/04/2011 

 

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The Waste Conversion Conversion Congress - West Coast The Waste Conversion
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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.