Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
30, July 23,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
California
Law
says:
Recycling
= Collect > Clean >
Treat > Reconstitute
> Raw
Materials.
Consider
the last half of that
process, and what it takes
to complete the Cycle from
being a waste, to being a
raw material ready for the
marketplace. Almost
everything should
be able to be Recycled back
into being something
useful, if it is just
handle it right. This
raises different questions:
What is "Post-Recycling
Residual", what's left, and
why, and aren't there clean
ways to make use of THAT,
instead of just dumping
it?
One
example is post-recycling
Plastic waste. New sensors
and auto-sorting systems
mean almost every kind of
plastic can be separated,
ground up, and turned into
little plastic pellets.
Collected plastics that
get
that
far can be
reconstituted with a bit of
heat and pressure right
back into that same sort of
useful plastic again. Over
and over, carefully
recovered plastics can be
remade, same-to-same. Yet
once different polymers
have been mixed and melted
or end up as fine gritty
granules, the best sorters
and sensors out there won't
easily separate that stuff
by type. If the nearest
reconstituting plant means
releasing 3,000 miles of
transport emissions just to
make another throw-away
plastic container, maybe
that pathway isn't a
Highest and Best Use, and
it doesn't make the grade.
Either way, the
results are
Post-Recycling Residuals
that are going to need a
lot more work to
"reconstitute".
There are
choices. It is possible to
take apart and reconstitute
that mixed Post-Recycling
Residual Plastic at the
molecular level, separating
the vapors and reforming
them into discrete
chemicals that are "Ready
for the Marketplace". The
new systems are out there,
but they are darn hard to
commercialize and permit,
at least in California, and
plants with thermal
depolymerization,
pyrolysis, and gasification
capabilities are few and
far between. Another
possibility is packing it
off to a state-of-the art
Waste to Energy plant, and
use those high-energy
molecules to make heat to
drive electricity
generation. Great fuel and
a heck of a lot cleaner to
work with than coal. But by
far, the most commonly
used approach for
dealing with Post-Recycling
Residuals is to let 'em go
to the
landfill.
Hey
Rube!
Keep an eye
on where California's new AB
341 mandatory commercial
recycling program meets the Air
Resources Board's (ARB)
on-going regulatory process for
assigning carbon intensity
values (CIs) to refineries that
can make Low Carbon Fuels. The
Rules say LCFS pathways need to
be analyzed using Life Cycle
Analyses (LCA), tallying up all
the Greenhouse Gas (GHG)
emissions from "well to wheel".
When the feedstock is Waste
separated for Recycling and the
end-product is a Low Carbon
Fuel, it is still necessary to
account for the impacts of all
the steps in between. It
doesn't help to not count GHGs
generated from trucking those
recycled materials to the
refinery. If
the entire pathway
isn't subject to monitoring,
how can the ARB and CalRecycle
complete the LCA and come up
with a credible CI for the fuel
produced?
The
Week's News
Imtech
Receives EUR 620MM Contract
for Warsaw Sustainable
Adventure
Park
Netherlands
based Imtech NV has signed a
EUR 620 million contract for
development of a sustainable
theme park in Warsaw, Poland.
07/20/2012
Clariant
Opens Germany's Largest
Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in
Straubing
Swiss
chemicals company Clariant
announced the inauguration
today of its EUR 28 million
cellulosic biomass to biofuel
plant at the Bavarian BioCampus
in Straubing.
07/20/2012
US Navy and
California Celebrate Clean
Energy for the Great Green
Fleet
The California
Energy Commission (CEC) joined
state business leaders and the
US Navy to celebrate Sacramento
Navy Week today on the steps of
the Capitol.
07/19/2012
California
Starts Reallocation on
Qualified Energy
Conservation Bond
Funding
The California
Debt Limit Allocation Committee
(CDLAC) begins reallocation of
Qualified Energy Conservation
Bond (QECB) funding this week,
where allocations have not been
utilized. 07/19/2012
University
of Wisconsin Researchers
Receive Biofuels
Patent
The University
of Wisconsin (UW), Stevens
Point campus has announced that
researchers at the Wisconsin
Institute for Sustainable
Technology (WIST) have been
granted a patent using an
aqueous solvent to separate
biomass into pure fractions of
lignin and cellulose.
07/19/2012
MVV Energie
AG Secures EUR 200 Million
for UK Energy from Waste
Plant
Germany based
MVV Energie AG has announced
that the KfW IPEX-Bank and the
Swedish Svenska Handelsbanken
will provide financing of
approximately EUR 200 million
for construction of an
energy-from-waste (EfW)
facility in Plymouth, Southeast
England, United Kingdom.
07/18/2012
DOE Launches
Energy Technology Cost and
Performance
Database
The US
Department of Energy (DOE) has
announced the addition of a new
public database providing cost
and performance estimates for
electric generation, advanced
vehicles and renewable fuel
technologies.
07/18/2012
Dyadic
Demonstrates Performance of
New Biofuels
Enzyme
Florida-based
Dyadic International has
unveiled its latest biofuels
enzyme advancement,
AlternaFuel®
CMAX3™.07/18/2012
European
Commission Launches
Bio-Based Industries
Consultation
The European
Commission initiated a new
public consultation last week
called, "Bio-based industries:
Towards a Public-Private
Partnership under Horizon
2020." 07/18/2012
Update:
CalRecycle 5-Yr Permit
Review Workshop Agenda
Available
In
our 07/15/2012 news, we
reported that the CalRecycle
5-year Permit Review Workshop
scheduled for July 24, 2012
would cover AB 341's changes to
the reporting process. The
Workshop Agenda has now been
posted. 07/17/2012
ESA Releases
Best Management Practices
for Landfill Gas Capture and
Use
The
Environmental Services
Association (ESA), trade
association for the United
Kingdom's (UK) waste and
secondary resources management
services, has announced a new
code of practice designed to
increase renewable electricity
production from landfill gas at
landfills.
07/17/2012
General
Motors Tests MagneGas
Waste-Sourced Metal-Working
Fuel
Florida-based
MagneGas has announced that
General Motors (GM) is testing
the company's metal-working
fuel at GM's Grand Blanc Weld
& Tool Center in Flint,
Michigan. 07/17/2012
Codexis
Restarts Enzyme Biocatalyst
Negotiations with Royal
Shell
Codexis now
announced entering a 45 day
Exclusive Negotiating Agreement
with Royal Dutch Shell that
could grant Codexis world-wide
licensing and sales rights in
the biofuels field.
07/17/2012
USFS Forest
Products Lab Opens
NanoCellulose Pilot
Plant
The US Forest
Service's (USFS) Forest
Products Laboratory (FPL) in
Madison, Wisconsin is
celebrating the Grand Opening
of its $1.7 million
NanoCellulose Pilot Plant on
July 25, 2012.
07/17/2012
Protabit
Awarded NSF SBIR Phase I for
Cellulase Enzyme
Development
Protabit LLC,
a Pasadena spin-off from the
California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), has
announced its selection by the
National Science Foundation for
a Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) Phase I grant
of about $150,000.
07/16/2012
Soma Selects
GE Waukesha Engines for
Cambodian Rice Hull to
Energy
Project
GE
has announced that the
Cambodian industrial leader
Soma Group has selected GE's
Waukesha VHP Series gas engine
systems for a new biomass to
energy project using rice hulls
as feedstock.
07/16/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
09/28/2012: Applications to
Connecticut Clean Energy for
CHP
Projects
The
Connecticut Clean Energy
Finance and Investment
Authority (CEFIA) announced
release of a Request for
Proposals (RFP) seeking to
assist in development of
combined heat and power (CHP)
projects. 07/20/2012
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