Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
16, April 16,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Garbology,
the study of humans (and
sub-humans) by poking
through their trash,
probably began in earnest
around 1987 at the
University of Arizona with
the work of Professor
William Rathje's dump
excavations; by now this is
a subject covered in
college and even K through
12. The field gets a
refreshing new Keynote
Speaker in Edward
Humes, with
publication this month
of his new tome,
Garbology: Our Dirty
Love Affair with
Trash. The run-ups
are appearing in
everything from the Wall
Street Journal to the
Sierra Club newsletter
(even here, friends, in
Trash Talk!) and with
good reason: Mr. Humes
gathers up recent
"what's In our garbage"
studies and trashes the
EPA's annual approach to
Municipal Solid Waste in
the United
States.
Turns
out, the EPA's been telling
us we toss a bit over 4
pounds of refuse each a day
and basing federal policy
on that amount, when more
thorough Science coming out
of Columbia University's
Earth & Environmental
Engineering program by
Garbologist Nick
Themelis shows it's
more like 7 pounds each,
for an astounding 102
tons of trash per
person, per
lifetime.
Humes has
put into national and
global context, the trashy
but true details of
Professor Themelis and
BioCycle's most recent
(October 2010) State of
Garbage in America
study. In Hume's weekend
essay in the WSJ, he
reflects on the news
that Trash has become
America's leading
export, with mountains
of our resources
constantly leaving the
country in shipping
containers of used beer
cans, plastics, paper
and cardboard and
electronics. In Mr.
Humes' Sierra Club note,
he reflects on Themelis'
deeper worries: "Among
myriad problems created
by the incorrect data,
he frets, is the false
impression that current
waste-reduction
strategies are working.
He argues that the
United States needs to
follow Europe's lead:
The Netherlands,
Germany, and Sweden have
all but eliminated
landfills by combining
strong recycling
programs with a new
generation of
low-emission
waste-to-energy
plants."
Hey
Rube!
Cowpower
is British Columbia’s
non-profit that supports
on-farm anaerobic digestion
by getting people to sign up
for a voluntary 4 cent per
kilowatt-hour surcharge, and
this great new "crowd
funding" idea is working,
seriously. But lighten up:
In the 1st edition of the
Cowpower Newsletter in
March, readers were asked to
come up with a new sexy
name, something other than
the "Cowpower Newsletter".
Teru suggested "MOOS
you Can Use".
We made it
through the grueling cut to
become one of the Eight
Finalists: "The Reader’s
Digestate", "MOOS You Can
Use"; "The Digester's Read";
"The Cowpower Current"; "The
Gasette Monthly"; "Moo
Inject Monthly"; "Moosletter
Monthly; and "The Grazing
Gazette". In the April
edition, Cowpower now
asks, "So, which one should
we choose? Please email your
favorite
to
or tweet it to @cowpowerbc
by April 30th. Not only
could you help us pick the
winning name, but if
selected, you could win a
Cowpower gift package."
Let
Cowpower know Teru Talk
readers are watching. Just
think of it: Teru Talk names
the Cowpower Newsletter! (Uh
- wonder what's in the gift
bag?)
The
Week's News
Clean World
Partners Debuts Food Waste
to Energy Plant in
Sacramento
Sacramento-based
Clean World Partners
has
scheduled
a public
unveiling
at its
North Natomas anaerobic
digestion (AD) facility
for April 19, 2012 that
began operations just
last month.
04/15/2012
Aston
University Funded for
Biomass & Waste
Conversion to Biofuels
Research
The United
Kingdom's (UK) Aston University
has announced that its
Bioenergy Research Group (BERG)
has been awarded €510,000 as
part of a €10.84m biofuels
research project under the
European Commission Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7).
04/14/2012
Greenleaf
Power Secures 10-year 45 MWe
PPA with Imperial Irrigation
District
The Imperial
Irrigation District (IID) in
southern California has
announced approval of a ten
year power purchase agreement
with Greenleaf Power, the new
owners of Desert View Power,
California's largest biomass
plant. 04/14/2012
NASA Invites
Journalists to OMEGA Project
Show & Tell in San
Francisco
The National
Aeronautic and Space
Administration (NASA), Ames
Research Center is staging a
one-hour guided tour of its
Offshore Membrane Enclosure for
Growing Algae (OMEGA) project
demonstration on Tuesday, April
17, 2012. 04/14/2012
Harvest
Power Raises $110MM in
Series C Financing
Round
Massachusetts
based dry fermentation
specialist Harvest Power has
announced a successful Series C
financing round, raising $110
million out of a total offering
of $125 million.
04/14/2012
CalRecycle
Schedules Urban Organics
Residuals Digestion
Forum
California's
Department of Resources
Recycling and Recovery
(CalRecycle) has announced an
all-day forum, "Digesting Urban
Organics Residuals: A Forum on
Technology, Economics &
Permitting", for May 30, 2012
in the Byron Sher Auditorium,
CalEPA building, Sacramento.
04/13/2012
Cyclone
Power's Chinese Licensee
Completes Prototype Engine,
Starts
Testing
Florida based
Cyclone Power Technologies has
announced that its Chinese
licensee, Great Wall
Alternative Power Systems Ltd.,
has completed fabrication of
its first prototype engine,
based on Cyclone’s WHE-25
design external-sourced waste
heat driven rankine-cycle
engine. 04/13/2012
IBI Final
Biochar Guidelines Are
Available for
Review
The
International Biochar
Initiative (IBI) has made
available its final version of
the "Standardized Product
Definition and Product Testing
Guidelines for Biochar That Is
Used in Soil", incorporating
all received comments
(including Teru's) and legal
vetting. 04/12/2012
Arisdyne
Receives Approval of 2nd Key
Biomass Pre-treatment
Patent
Ohio-based
Arisdyne Systems Inc. has
announced approval of a second
patent for its methods and
equipment used to improve the
yield of alcohol that can be
produced from a given quantity
of feedstock by fermentation.
04/12/2012
CRIBE
Invests $6MM for Domtar Mill
Wood Waste to Bio-Oil
Project
Ontario,
Canada based Centre for
Research and Innovation in the
Bio-Economy (CRIBE) has
announced its investment of $6
million in support of a a new
approach to converting waste
wood to bio-oil.
04/11/2012
Humboldt County Starts Food
Waste Pilot, Prepares AD
Facility
RFP
The Humboldt
Waste Management Authority
(HWMA) in northern
California
is
launching a food waste
collection pilot program
this week, according to a
local press interview
with HWMA's project
manager Juliette Bohn and
CalRecycle's Jacques
Franco.
04/11/2012
Elevance,
XiMo Advance Bio-sourced Oil
to Bio-Product
Metathesis
The
Illinois-based company Elevance
has announced that its
partnership with Swiss-based
specialty catalyst development
firm XiMo AG has resulted in
significant advancement of
Elevance's biorefinery
platform. 04/11/2012
CEC Releases
Revised Notice of Awards for
Hybrid Generation, DG and
CCHP
The California
Energy Commission (CEC) has
released a revised Notice of
Proposed Award (NOPA) for
proposals submitted to the
Program Opportunity Notice
(PON-11-507) for Hybrid
Generation and Fuel-flexible
Distributed Generation (DG),
Combined Heat and Power (CHP),
and Combined Cooling, Heat and
Power (CCHP).
04/10/2012
USDA Grants
$5MM to Western Plains
Energy for Biogas
Plant
Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack has
announced that the US
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has approved a $5
million grant to Western Plains
Energy, LLC (WPE) to support
construction of an anaerobic
digestion (AD) plant at WPE's
ethanol facility in Gove
County, Kansas.
04/10/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
05/01/2012:Pre-Application
for SBIR/STTR 2012 Funding
Opportunity
The US
Department of Energy (DOE)
Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy (EERE) has
announced its 2012 Funding
Opportunity Notice
(DE-FOA-0000715) for Phase I,
Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR) and Small
Business Technology Transfer
(STTR) programs.
04/10/2012
Due
06/07/2012: Letter of Intent
to ETI for UK Energy from
Waste Demo
Plant
The United
Kingdom's Energy Technologies
Institute (ETI) has announced
release of a Request for
Proposals (RFP) seeking
partners for design and
construction of an integrated
gasification and gas cleanup
Energy from Waste (EfW)
demonstration plant.
04/13/2012
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