Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
3, January 16,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Here's a brain teaser for
you: After you've picked
out every last scrap of
recognizable, easily
recovered, and reclaimable
plastic in the flow of
trash, can you turn the
rest into "renewable
energy, fuels and
chemicals"? Well, is the
recycling of waste plastic
more renewable when you
melt it down and turn it
back into plastic than when
you melt it down and turn
it into jet fuel? So let's
say THAT constitutes a
beneficial use for recycled
plastic, whether or not you
make more plastic from it.
After all, you don't make
more apples out of recycled
food waste from an apple
processing plant, eh? Does
it make a difference that
the starting material
wasn't an organic? Careful,
now … we're poking at some
of those precious precepts
we have about what is and
isn't
Recycling.
Agencies and industries are
struggling with "extended
product stewardship"; in
California, one product
under scrutiny is Carpet. A
detailed Plan has been
developed by an
organization representing
Carpet manufacturers to
satisfy recently enacted
laws that make those same
manufacturers responsible
for seeing that waste
carpet and backing are
diverted from the landfill.
Some off-ends can be
cleaned, trimmed and used
as-is. Some can be cut up
to make "carpet tiles",
glued to floors like
linoleum squares. Some will
get torn apart, and the
fibrous plastic materials
made back into Carpet. And
some, as the Plan and the
State agree, can be Carpet
as Alternative Fuel (CAAF),
since the big
waste-to-energy plants and
the cement kilns really,
really like that high-Btu
feedstock.
What isn't mentioned, not
surprisingly, is what
Carpet manufacturers don't
do; they don't make fuels
or chemicals. When they are
done with the scraps, when
they can no longer make
those little bits back into
carpet stuff, it must be
Waste, and since this whole
game is predicated on
cutting down on Disposal,
well, maybe it'll burn.
Like apple processors,
their scraps need to be
converted by those who know
how to do something else
with them; your waste is my
feedstock. But there is a
BIG opportunity being
overlooked. This very
costly program of Carpet
Stewardship can be
substantially off-set if
those non-recyclable scraps
can be converted into heat
for the melters and
electricity for the lights
and equipment, into far
less expensive
clean-burning alternative
fuel for the fork-lifts and
big rigs, and maybe even
into high-value foundation
chemicals to make more
plastic. If you can
accomplish that trick with
right-sized modular
ultraclean conversion
technologies on the
manufacturer's site,
you avoid a whole slew of
transport costs and
emissions. Fortunately,
there are an increasing
number of companies who ARE
paying attention to
converting post-recycling
plastics into heat,
electricity, fuels and
chemicals, and although
this pathway isn't called
out and encouraged, the
Plan at least doesn't
preclude them from the
program.
So, back to the teaser:
You've done all you can to
make new carpet out of the
old scraps. If you convert
the rest to heat, to
electricity, to fuels
and/or to chemicals, isn't
that
also Recycling?
Hey
Rube!
Tuesday's
CalRecycle meeting in
Sacramento will decide on
approving the California Carpet
Stewardship Plan. We've
submitted formal Comments (see
below), so if you are in the
neighborhood, drop by
…
The
Week's Extra
Reading
See Teru's
Comments to CalRecycle on
the California Carpet
Stewardship Plan and the
proposed adoption of its
CEQA Negative
Declaration.
The
Week's News
California
DTSC and US EPA Sign Green
Chemistry
Accord
The US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has announced a
Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) with the California
Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC) to collaborate
on identification, removal and
substitution of toxic chemicals
in consumer products.
01/15/2012
Santa
Barbara County to Initiate
CEQA on Regional MSW to
Energy
Project
The Santa
Barbara County, California,
Public Works Department has
prepared a staff report
requesting authorization
from the Board of
Supervisors to initiate
California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) review on
the multi-year Resource
Recovery Project to divert
waste from the Tajiguas
Landfill.
01/14/2012
Malaby
Biogas Receives First WRAP
Anaerobic Digestion
Loan
The United
Kingdom's Waste & Resources
Action Programme (WRAP) has
announced that Malaby Biogas is
the first to benefit from the
Anaerobic Digestion Loan Fund
(ADLF) from the Department for
the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (DEFRA).
01/14/2012
BlackGold
Biofuels, SLM Partner for
Commercial Kitchen Grease
Program
Two
Pennsylvania companies with
broad national market
services, BlackGold Biofuels
and SLM Facilities Services,
have announced a strategic
partnership to provide
collection services and
biofuels conversion for
waste commercial kitchen
grease.
01/14/2012
Waste
Conversion Start-ups Among
Finalists in 2012 Clean
Energy
Challenge
Two waste
conversion start-ups are
among the ten finalists in
the 2012 Clean Energy
Challenge for the Midwest
according to the Trust's
announcement just released.
The finalists were selected
from 59 applicants across
eight states.
01/13/2012
Cool Planet Biofuels Starts
Negative-Carbon Fuels Fleet
Tests in
California
California
based Cool Planet Biofuels, Inc
has announced receipt of
California Air Resources Board
(CARB) approval to begin
commercial fleet testing of its
negative carbon biofuel.
01/12/2012
UMass
Researchers Boost
Biochemical Output from
Biomass by 40
Percent
The
University of Massachusetts
Amherst has announced that
its chemical engineering
researchers have improved
recovery of petrochemical
alternatives from non-food
woody biomass by as much as
40% over previous methods
using catalytic fast
pyrolysis technology.
01/12/2012
CEC/PIER
Community Scale Renewables
RFP to be Released Next
Month
The
California Energy
Commission's (CEC) Public
Interest Energy Research
(PIER) program held a
workshop on January 10, 2012
to request stakeholder input
on its upcoming Community
Scale Renewable Energy
Development, Deployment and
Integration solicitation.
01/12/2012
SAIC, Enova
Energy, Carlyle Group Launch
$225 Million Biomass
Project
Science
Applications International
Corporation (SAIC) and the
Carlyle Energy Mezzanine
Opportunities Group
(Carlyle) have jointly
announced a $225 million
agreement to finance the
construction of the 37.5
megawatt Plainfield
Renewable Energy (PRE)
biomass project, owned by a
subsidiary of the Enova
Energy Group LLC (Enova).
01/11/2012
Verso Paper
Completes $45MM Renewable
Energy Mill
Upgrade
Memphis-based
Verso Paper Corporation has
announced completion of a major
renewable energy upgrade to its
pulp and paper mill in
Quinnesec, Michigan.
01/11/2012
Renewable
Gas Research in Ireland
Receives Funding
Boost
The
Environmental Research
Institute (ERI) at University
College Cork announced receipt
of €250,000 to advance research
in 2012 on the country's
renewable gas development
"beyond the academic and into
industry."
01/11/2012
EPA, DOE and
WAPA Host Green Power
Program
Webinar
An
informational web presentation
entitled "Overview of the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency's Green Power Program"
will be held on January 25,
2012 at 11:00 a.m. Mountain
Standard Time (MST).
01/11/2012
ClearEdge
Signs $500MM Agreement with
Güssing for 50 MW of Fuel
Cell
Energy
Oregon's scalable stationary
fuel cell manufacturer
ClearEdge Power has announced
the signing of a long-term
system supply agreement with
Austrian distributed energy
specialists Güssing Renewable
Energy GmbH.
01/10/2012
JBI Secures
$2.8MM for Plastic2Oil
Technology
Buildout
Ontario, Canada's waste
plastics conversion company
JBI, Inc. has announced closure
this month of an equity
financing round totaling $2.795
million, for further
development of its
"Plastic2Oil" (P2O) technology
platform and production
capacity. 01/10/2012
Imtech
Secures Commission for
Polish Recycling and Energy
Plant
Netherlands-based technical
services provider Imtech has
been commissioned by Polish
waste company Finalsa S.A. to
provide all technical solutions
for an advanced waste
management facility near
Warsaw, Poland.
01/09/2012
Extreme
Biodiesel Converts Waste
Glycerin to New
Product
Extreme Biodiesel has announced
that it will convert its waste
glycerin to new value-added
products, including lubricants
for concrete and asphalt forms
as used in landscaping and road
construction.
01/09/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
02/21/2012: Proposals for
Low Carbon Biofuel
Production Facilities to
CEC
The
California Energy Commission
(CEC) has announced the
release of a Program
Opportunity Notice
(PON-11-601), soliciting
proposals for either new low
carbon biofuel production
facilities, or for
significant carbon intensity
reductions in biofuels from
existing production
facilities.
01/13/2012
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