Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume I, Issue
43, December 19,
2011
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Merry
Christmas and Happy
Holidays to all! Just
wanted to let you know that
our newsletter will go out
Tuesday the 27th next
week.
Teru's Trash Talk
China's got a problem
making biodiesel. The
country regulates who can
collect and who can
convert, but it seems only
about one third of the used
cooking oil collected makes
it to the biodiesel
processors. The rest is
being filtered and resold
to restaurants. Testing
shows around 90% of the oil
now in re-circulation is
contaminated with the toxic
breakdown products that
accumulate when veggie and
animal oils are repeatedly
hit with high heat. This
may put a new spin on the
old "food or fuel"
fight.
We read that we Humans
waste a huge amount of
food, but then learn most
of that waste occurs during
original processing. Only
one in three apples make it
to the grocery store shelf;
more than half the
rice-plants grown are
straw, not grain. Instead
of paying to dispose
of that "extra" stuff,
we're starting to learn to
convert it into more
Product for the
marketplace, which means
more money for the farmer.
But as we can tell from the
Chinese cooking oil fiasco,
not everything can or
should be recycled, or even
composted. Sometimes we
really DO need to pull
stuff from the market
cycle, un-bake the cake,
and put the molecules back
to work in totally
different forms. And we
have the tools to do that
with, safely and
cleanly.
It isn't just Food that
fits the story; right now,
California is working the
kinks out of what to do
with old Carpet to keep the
sheer tonnage out of the
landfill, while the UK is
struggling with this same
problem (the two should
compare notes). Lots of
carpet can be pulled apart,
the fibers made back into
more carpet or at least
made into carpet pads, but
that recycling cycle only
goes so far. Then what? The
non-recyclable stuff makes
good fuel for energy,
surely it's under
consideration and far
better than the dump. Along
the value chain between
recycling and incineration
we have Conversion; those
synthetic polymers can be
carefully vaporized,
vacuum-separated by types
of molecules, and turned
back into chemical
building-blocks and clean
fuel. That HAS to be better
than buying more crude from
Iran.
This tussle over where
Waste Conversion fits in
the hierarchy, what methods
can be approved as simple
re-manufacturing and what
gets shelved because of
fear and old money will
play out more and more
often now in our agencies
and our courts. We'll
continue to bring you, Dear
Reader, the
blow-by-blow.
Hey
Rube!
California's waste management
department CalRecycle is taking
a novel approach to changing
regulations, one I really don't
remember happening in the 30
years I've been dogging this
business; agency staff have
been working with stakeholders
to identify the Issues,
THEN asking what pieces of the
standing regulations might need
to be fixed to clear those
barriers. It's a subtle
difference, looking for
solutions instead of
excuses. Everyone
meets
again this week to dig a
bit deeper into the dozen or
so key Issues we've agreed
need Solutions, and gently
try to nudge the regulatory
structure back toward sanity
over the next few months.
You should come
too.
The
Week's News
Coskata Files for Proposed
$100MM
IPO
Illinois based Coskata Inc. has
announced a proposed initial
public offering (IPO) of common
stock with the filing of a Form
S-1 registration statement with
the US Securities and Exchange
Commission.
12/17/2011
CalRecycle
Schedules Informal Workshop
on Potential Regulatory
Changes
The California Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
announced an informal Public
Workshop to be held on December
21, 2011 at the Cal EPA
building in Sacramento from
9:00 am to noon.
12/16/2011
Mascoma
Receives $80MM from DOE,
Michigan Biorefinery Now
Fully Funded
New Hampshire's waste-to-fuels
company Mascoma Corporation has
announced an award of $80
million from the US Department
of Energy (DOE) for the
proposed commercial-scale
hardwood cellulosic ethanol
facility in Kinross, Michigan.
12/16/2011
City of
Glendale Approves Zero Waste
Plan, including Food Waste
AD
The Glendale City Council in
Los Angeles County approved a
Zero Waste Plan and Extended
Producer Responsibility program
at its December 6, 2011
meeting.
12/15/2011
Digester
Designer GHD is now DVO,
Expands to Asia, EU, South
America
Plug-flow digester company GHD,
Inc has changed its name to
DVO, Inc, and announced
expansion of services for
export of its technology to
farmers in South Korea, Serbia,
Chile and Canada.
12/15/2011
Enerkem
Raises $15MM Equity
Financing from WM, EB for
Edmonton
Plant
Montreal's waste to biofuels
company Enerkem has announced
equity placements by Waste
Management Inc (WM) and EB
Investments totaling C$15
million toward subsidiary
Enerkem Alberta Biofuels L.P.,
currently under construction in
Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
12/15/2011
Inbicon
Certifies Harris Group for
North American Biorefinery
Buildout
Denmark's waste to biofuels
firm Inbicon is expanding
operations and has announced
certification of the Harris
Group Inc as meeting all of the
standards necessary for
engineering Inbicon commercial
scale biorefineries in North
America.
12/15/2011
Neste Oil
Plans 1st Waste-Sourced
Bio-Oil Plant in Porvoo,
Finland
Finland-based global refining
and marketing company Neste Oil
Corporation has announced plans
to build a waste-sourced
bio-oil production facility in
Porvoo, Finland, already the
site of Neste's main base-oil
refinery.
12/15/2011
City of
Ottawa Awards 20-yr Waste
Conversion to Energy
Contract to
Plasco
The Ottawa City Council
approved a 20 year contract
with Plasco Energy Group to
convert a portion of the City's
solid waste with Plasco's
plasma gasification process to
energy, deferring the need for
a new city landfill until 2070.
12/14/2011
DOE Launches
Program to Help Business use
National Lab
Discoveries
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced
a new pilot
program to speed
commercialization of critical
discoveries from DOE labs.
12/14/2011
FuelCell
Energy and Abengoa Target
Biofuel to Fuel Cell
Market
California-based FuelCell
Energy has announced a
partnership with Abengoa S.A.
to develop localized stationary
ultra-clean fuel cell power
plants.
12/13/2011
Shanks Opens
Cumbria MBT Plant for Waste
Conversion Ahead of
Schedule
United Kingdom waste management
company Shanks Group LLC. has
announced the opening a
mechanical-biological treatment
(MBT) facility for household
waste three months ahead of
schedule in Hespin Wood,
Carlisle.
12/13/2011
Mule Dung
Biogas Plant Installed for
India Cave
Shrine
Local press for the Jammu and
Kashmir region of India
reports that the Shri Mata
Vaishno Devi Shrine Board
(SMVDSB) has installed a 4
tonne per day anaerobic
digester (AD) near the
pilgrimage base camp, and will
soon commission the plant.
12/13/2011
International
Research Team Engineers Rice
Straw for Biofuels
Production
Researchers from Washington
State University Pullman and
the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory (PNNL) have teamed
with the National Chiayi
University in Taiwan to
engineer rice straw to produce
enzymes facilitating its
cellulosic hydrolysis, without
significantly impacting the
food value of the rice grain.
12/12/2011
LanzaTech
Takes Two Top Global Honors
for Emissions Conversion
Technology
New Zealand based LanzaTech has
announced receipt of two
world-class 2011 clean tech
awards, taking top honors with
an Award of Excellence as
Platts Global Energy's
"Sustainable Technology
Innovation of the Year".
12/12/2011
BIOCORE
Produces 2nd Generation
Ethanol Through Waste Straw
Conversion
The European Union's 18 month
old multi-national
collaborative project
"BIOCOmmodity REfinery", or
BIOCORE, has announced success
in advanced non-food sourced
biofuel pathway development and
implementation with the
pilot-scale production of 2nd
generation bioethanol.
12/12/2011
The Week's Action
Items
Due
01/16/2012: Comments on CEQA
IS/ND for California Carpet
Stewardship
Plan
California's Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
released the most recent draft
California Carpet Stewardship
Plan submitted by Carpet
America Recovery Effort (CARE).
CalRecycle's approval of the
Plan is being considered a
"project" under the California
Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA).
12/17/2011
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