Teru Talk
Newsletter
Volume I, Issue
5
-
March 28,
2011
Teru Talk
by Michael Theroux
(pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash
Talk
What is it about
waste that gets
people so … so
irritated? It isn’t
the myriad ways for
recovery of waste, it isn’t
really recycling, or even
waste disposal, per se,
it’s waste. The very
fact that we have
such a commonly employed
negative term is
polarizing. It’s the TV
cliché of the punk on the
street, throwing empty fast
food wrappers on the
sidewalk just to show Who’s
Boss. I suppose it’s saying
to the Powers that Be:
You’re Not the Boss o’ Me!!
Well, we have always
managed to do a lot of
stupid stuff, just to show
we’re in charge, just to
prove something … maybe,
just to get attention. It's
just
dirty.
I heard a tale of a family
man in Japan years ago that
refused to separate the
family’s refuse into the
17-or-so separate
containers mandated by the
community’s Administration
for recycling. Nobody in
the whole town would look
at them, or talk to them,
or sell anything to them
for a month. Maybe that was
just a false rumor; maybe
not. It does tell us that
not recycling in Japan is
socially
unacceptable.
If someone is consistently
throwing something away and
you ask them to give it to
you, all of a sudden it has
Value. If it has Value, it
gets counted; we usually
don’t count what we don’t
value, so counting no-value
“waste” is a lot harder
than counting “recovered
resources”.
“Say,
buddy, mind if I have
your
waste
?” … “Get
lost, ya bum … that isn’t
waste, it‘s
Resource.”
Hey
Rube!
Comments are due
April 4, 2011 (that's a
week from today) to the
CalRecycle on
their 382-page Draft
Programmatic Environmental
Impact Report (PEIR) for
statewide Anaerobic
Digestion of MSW. Teru's
Focus Report summarizing
the Draft PEIR and why it
is important is posted
here. Take
a look and consider
submitting your own
comments. It
matters.
The Week's
News
New Chinese
Ethanol Plant Will Use
LanzaTech Offgas-to-Fuel
Technology
New Zealand based LanzaTech,
the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS), and the steel and iron
conglomerate Baosteel Group
Corporation have begun
construction of a 100,000
gallon per year ethanol plant
that will use LanzaTech’s gas
fermentation technology to make
fuel ethanol from the flue
off-gas emissions produced by
Baosteel’s steel mill.
03/27/2011
Mississippi Gulf Coast
Community College Students
Learn to Make
Biodiesel
Florida Biodiesel Inc will
provide a modular biodiesel
system to Mississippi Gulf
Coast Community College to
demonstrate Green Fuel
technology for on-campus
activities, and show students
how to make renewable energy.
03/27/2011
ECRI
Explores Large Scale
Collection and Composting of
Food
Waste
The Environmental Council of
Rhode Island (ECRI) held a
community meeting last week to
explain and explore the
potential for collection of the
community’s food waste and
conversion to compost and
renewable energy as an
alternative to landfill
disposal.
03/27/2011
DTSC
Announces Green Chemistry
Initiative Sub-Committee
Meetings
The California Department of
Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)
has announced meeting agendas
for the three recently-formed
sub-committees within their
Green Ribbon Science Panel
(GRSP).
03/26/2011
MSU now
Licensing Fuel-Additive
Producing
Fungus
Researchers at the Montana
State University (MSU) have
announced that their
Eucalyptus-oil-producing fungus
Hypoxylon sp. is
now ready for licensing.
03/26/2011
Highmark
Receives US, South African
Integrated bioRefinery
Patents
Canadian biorefinery developer
Highmark Renewables has
received US and South African
patent assurances for their
newest waste-to-energy
Integrated bioRefinery
technology platform.
03/25/2011
Butamax
Receives Patent for
Bio-Butanol Production
Methods
Wilmington, Delaware based
Butamax Advanced Biofuels has
announced that the US Trade and
Patent Office has granted a
patent for their proprietary
isobutanol production methods,
covering a key step in their
biobutanol production pathway
using genetic constructs with
highly active enzymes.
03/24/2011
DOE Fully
Funds Commitment to EdeniQ
and Logos for CCM Pilot
Biorefinery
Logos Technologies Inc has
announced that their
partnership with cellulosic
fuels company EdeniQ has
received full commitment of
$20.5 million from the US
Department of Energy (DOE)
under the Integrated
Biorefinery Program.
03/24/2011
Delta Diablo
Sanitation District Receives
$1MM for Gasification
Project
In
yesterday’s Business
meeting, the California
Energy Commission (CEC)
unanimously approved an
award of $999,924 to the
Antioch-based Delta Diablo
Sanitation District to
develop, demonstrate, and
implement a system to turn
biosolids into energy.
03/24/2011
Free
Gasification Technology
Workshop Scheduled for
Regulators
The
Gasification Technology Council
(GTC) has announced their 2011
Gasification Technology
Workshop schedule, this year to
be held April 6-7 in Tampa,
Florida. 03/23/2011
3-Diary
Digester Project Kicks Off
in Washington
State
NativeEnergy
has announced their partnership
with Rainier BioGas and three
Washington state dairies to
build a 1200-cow manure
digester which will generate 1
megawatt of electricity for
sale to Puget Sound Energy and
reduce over 4,000 tons of
greenhouse gas emission
annually. 03/23/2011
California
Biomass Collaborative’s 8th
Annual Forum, April 5-6,
2011
The California Biomass
Collaborative (CBC) has
announced the agenda for their
8th annual Forum at the
University of California at
Davis (UC Davis) Conference
Center on April 5-6, 2011.
03/22/2011
US EPA Hosts
Free Co-EAT
Webinar
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) will host a free
training webinar on March 31,
2011 for their Co-Digestion
Economic Assessment Tool.
03/22/2011
RSB Launches
Voluntary Certification
System for
Biofuels
The international organization
Roundtable on Sustainable
Biofuels (RSB) will publically
launch its global standard and
certification system at the
World Biofuels Market event in
Rotterdam, Netherlands on March
23, 2011.
03/22/2011
UK AD & Biogas 2011 Expo
& Conference July 6-7, 2011
in
Birmingham
The Anaerobic
Digestion and Biogas
Association (ADBA) is hosting
their 2nd annual industry event
this July 6-7, 2011 in
Birmingham, United Kingdom.
03/22/2011
FuelMatic
Biodiesel Processor
Manufacturing Moves to
Nevada
Green Fuels
America (GFA) will
manufacture their 5,000 gallon
per day FuelMatic and other
commercial biodiesel processors
in their Sparks, Nevada
headquarters.
03/21/2011
The Week's Action
Items
Due
06/02/2011: Comments on Fuel
Quality, Renewable Energy
Directives
The United Kingdom’s (UK)
Department for Transport (DfT)
released parallel Consultation
Documents this month, seeking
public comment on the
Government’s regulatory plans
to come to parity with the
greenhouse gas intensity
reduction requirements of
European Directive 2009/30/EC.
03/24/2011
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