You are receiving this email because you signed up at our web site or have an interest in our content. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, you may unsubscribe by clicking the link at the end of this email.

View  this email in your browser.
If you received it from someone else,
subscribe so you can have your own.
Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume II, Issue 18, April 30, 2012 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

Let's get some perspective. When it comes to converting crud to commodities, what is Big, what is (small), and what do we use as a comparison? If you are a developer and have spent a decade trying to commercialize your waste conversion whats-it, it's a Big Thing. But if you are Los Angeles County, thinking about closing Puente Hills Landfill next year and wondering what you are going to do with about 6,000 to 10,000 tons per day the landfill receives right now, well, that 100 ton per day conversion system may not seem all that impressive. Then again, if you work with a small rural community to convert their post-recycling residual waste into combined heat, electricity, fuel and other useful goodies, 100 tons a day will probably put a pretty good dent in the amount they need to ship down the hill for disposal. If your system can do that hat-trick cleanly and cost-effectively, that's Big.

Now let's consider putting a Big Biorefinery in the middle of the Valley below, a plant that can convert, say 1,000 to 3,000 tons a day, and think about how you would gather enough stuff to keep that plant running for 20 years. If the 100 ton a day system eats a 1/4 of the waste stuff generated in that rural community and the money saved is used to pay for shipping the rest to that biorefinery, you have a self-supporting supply chain. Surround that central Biorefinery hub with a dozen small supply chain "spokes" leading downhill from small communities, each gathering and shipping a few hundred ton a day, and you've cornered your feedstock supply needs. Now you have installations for a dozen relatively small 100 ton per day systems AND for that central unit that needs to convert over ten times that amount. The financing for the Big Guy wraps around developing the dozen Small Guys, since that's how a reliable supply of feedstock is secured to flow downhill for 20 years. A new waste conversion infrastructure is born.

Maybe if our Big BioEnergy Industry used that hub-and-spoke model, siting little plants near the Source that eat a bit of the supply to pay for the rest of the gathering and shipping downhill, they wouldn't be struggling so hard to stay alive. This is just Farming: you feed your family on a few of the chickens and tomatoes you raise, and send the rest to market.

Hey Rube!

Filtering the global flow of information is a lot like holding a fire hose, while standing under Niagara Falls. Yet that massive flood hides, more than it reveals. Teru Talk needs your Eyes and Ears on the waste conversion industrial marketplace. If you know of a cool technology and/or project turning crud to commodities and you DON'T see it show up here, please let us know. Every Litter (conversion) Bit Helps.

Other Stuff

Many of you have been asking for an RSS Feed for Teru Talk, and we finally have it! Just go to our website and click on the orange "RSS" button to the right of date above Teru's head. Or, click here.

We have also added a page for recommended reading from Teru's Bookshelf. We have some books up already, and there are a few more on the desk that will be posted soon. They are linked to an online bookstore (when they are available for purchase) if you are interested in finding out more about them.

The Week's News

University of Florida Team Will Lead US-India Advanced Biofuels Project

The University of Florida (UF) last week clarified its role in the broadly collaborative Joint Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC), a US-India clean energy advancement program announced earlier this month. 04/28/2012

Novozymes Joins Danish Green Energy Consortium

Novozymes has announced its new seat on the board as it joins a Danish green energy consortium advancing the multi-technologic Måbjerg Energy Concept, co-founded by DONG Energy in August of last year. 04/28/2012

Arisdyne Cavitation Pretreatment Installed at HERO BX Biodiesel Facility

The Ohio-based biomass pre-treatment specialist Arisdyne Systems Inc. has announced adoption of its patented Controlled Flow CavitationTM (CFC) technology by HERO BX after two months of successful testing. 04/28/2012

DECC Publishes 2012 UK Bioenergy Strategy

The United Kingdom Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has announced publication of the UK Bioenergy Strategy, together with a series of supporting documents. 04/27/2012

Neste Oil Enters US Advanced Biofuels Market with NExBTL Biodiesel

Finland's Neste Oil has announced its first successful bulk sale and delivery of its NExBTL renewable biodiesel in the US advanced biofuels market. Neste has been closely focused on production of its renewable biofuels from waste oils and residues. 04/26/2012

Covanta Completes CLEERGAS Energy from Waste Demonstration Testing

New Jersey based Covanta Energy Corporation has announced successful completion of commercial demonstration testing of its starved-air energy from waste (EfW) system. 04/26/2012

Chemrec Black Liquor Waste Gasification Plants Will be Offered in China

The Swedish firm Chemrec has announced an agreement with China Tianchen Engineering Corporation Co Ltd (TCC) that will bring the company's turn-key waste gasification plants into China. 04/26/2012

Appeals Court Lifts Injunction on California's LCFS

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has announced that the Ninth Circuit of the U.S Court of Appeals has overturned a December 2011 district court injunction blocking the ARB's implementation and enforcement of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). 04/25/2012

Trillium FiberFuels Receives STTR Award for Xylose Enzyme RD

Oregon based Trillium FiberFuels LLC, in collaboration with Researchers at Oregon State University, have been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) 2012 grant from the US Department of Energy, under the Catalysis topic. 04/25/2012

Newport Biodiesel Plans to Triple Production of WVO Sourced Biodiesel

The Rhode Island (RI) Department of Environmental Management, Office of Waste Management (OWM) has scheduled a public hearing at the facilities of Newport Biodiesel, LLC on April 25, 2012 at 7:00pm to receive public comment regarding the company's revised Beneficial Use Determination application. 04/25/2012

Xebec Secures First Chinese LFG Upgrade Order, Distribution Agreement

Quebec's biogas upgrading firm Xebec Adsorption Inc announced its first landfill gas upgrading system order and has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement in mainland China with the Chinese client and partner. 04/24/2012

SmallWood 2012 Will Focus on Forest Restoration for New Economy

The US Forest Service, Kaibab National Forest, has announced a conference to gather natural resource professionals and industry leaders to explore new advances in forest restoration and wood utilization. 04/24/2012

Weltec Starts Construction on 526 kW Biogas CHP Plant for French Pig Farm

Weltec Biopower of Vechta, Germany is constructing an anaerobic digestion (AD) to biogas facility for generation of 526 kilowatt (kW) on a pig farm in the French region of Saint-Nicolas-du-Tertre, Brittany, about 60 miles northwest of Nantes. 04/24/2012

Virdia Opens Tech Center and Biomass-to-Sugar Pilot Plant in Virginia

California-based Virdia has announced opening of its demonstration facility and testing center in Danville, Virginia, on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) at Virginia Tech. 04/24/2012

WRG Secures Planning Approval for Energy from Waste Plant

United Kingdom based Waste Recycling Group (WRG) has announced that the Buckinghamshire County Council’s independent Development Control Committee has approved its planning application for the Greatmoor Energy Recovery Facility, a 22 megawatt energy from waste facility to be fueled by 300,000 tonnes per year of the region's post-recycling solid waste. 04/23/2012

 

Aquaflow Formalizes Agreement with CRI and Seeks Investment Funding

New Zealand's Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation has announced that it has executed a technology cooperative agreement with CRI Catalyst Company, which positions the company to commercialize its multi-biomass based biofuels within three years.  04/23/2012

The Week's Action Items

Due 07/18/2012: Comments on Kaibab National Forest Draft Forest Plan and EIS

The US Forest Service has published a Notice of Availability for the draft Kaibab National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and accompanying draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS No. 20120111), initiating a 90-day public comment period. 04/23/2012

 

Follow Teru Talk on Twitter!

Teru Talk Home

Current News at Teru Talk
Teru Action Items
TERU Focus Reports

Articles at Teru Talk

Sponsors:
JDMT, Inc
Recommended Reading:
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes
Garbology: Our
Dirty Love Affair
with Trash
by Edward Humes
Featured Events:
SEE YOUR EVENT HERE!
 

© Copyright 2012 Teru Talk by JDMT, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Please do not reply to this email because the mail box is not monitored and we might miss it. If you wish to contact us, please click here:

Contact Us

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.