Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
35, August 27,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
It seems to me there's more
confidence showing in our
waste conversion industry
these days. Confidence that
says, "if we build it, they
will come"… here, let me
explain. We're all good at
something, but few of us
are good at everything. If
you are a giant of a waste
management company, you
know how to collect trash.
If, on the other hand, you
can turn wood into sugar,
hey, you just need the wood
input, and something to do
with the sugar once you've
made it. There's a lot of
woody stuff in trash, so
partnering your
wood-to-sugar game with the
trash hauler guys makes a
lot of sense. If you are a
company that can turn wood
sugar into plastic, or
fuel, or whatever, now you
are starting to see
front-end supply chain
companies and intermediate
processing folks getting
their proverbial together.
That's got to be a welcome
sign, one that might
encourage you to taking
orders for your own
products, and placing
orders for bou coup tons of
that wood sugar. It's
enough to make you think,
"Hey, maybe we CAN get this
whole
bioresource-to-product
thing
rolling!"
Let's say you've made that
decision to jump out front
and make it happen in a big
way, turning biomass to
biofuel. By doing so,
you've set the industrial
table for specialist
companies whose bolt-on
sub-systems can make your
job easier, cheaper, more
stabile and dependable. The
Money out there can see
markets opening up, places
at the table where their
prospective investments can
sell their wares, so they
drop the dime and another
company crawls up above
radar. New cheaper ways to
turn agricultural crop
residue into more easily
fermented goo turn up, and
everybody comes out ahead.
Or, as a progressive City,
you figure now's the time
to look around for new tool
sets to turn those costly
waste liabilities into
assets, so you cut loose a
Request for Proposals with
a far broader scope than
you might have, even a year
or two
ago.
Engines put out emissions,
primarily carbon dioxide, a
Nasty Gas for the ozone.
Plants take up carbon
dioxide and put out oxygen;
they've been doing that
since Dirt was first made.
But what were the chances a
few years ago to convince a
massive engine and
electricity company to not
only provide your 125 acres
of greenhouses with heat
and power, but to also
figure out how to feed the
CO2 from those engine
emissions right back to
your tomatoes? Now we just
need to link the supply
chain a step further; use
the slop from that brewery
downtown to make the biogas
that runs those engines
that heat and feed the
greenhouse. Whew! Loop,
closed.
So, here's what are our
industries, our agencies,
and our financial houses
are looking for: "processes
that create replacements
for existing market
products, but with less
fossil fuel used and with
less greenhouse gas
emissions, and all done
with less
money."
Hey
Rube!
Start picking
and choosing which conferences
to go to this fall, deciding
where you are going to spend
those too-scarce, hard-earned
dollars. We've all been quietly
making what progress we could
in our labs and our offices for
the past few years. It's time
to have Confidence, and depend
on the strength of our
inventiveness. We need to start
creeping out from under the
rocks where this economy has
kept us hidden, and showing off
what we can do these days. I'll
show you mine, if you'll show
me yours
…
The
Week's Extra Reading
Continuing the
discussion from last
week's newsletter on
Black Soldier Flies, we
have posted a new
article by
guest author Paul
Olivier,
Biodigestion Alternative: A
Cool Way of Raising
Pigs
See
Teru's
interview
with
Neil Black,
President of
California Bioenergy
LLC
,
who will be a key speaker at
the 7th Annual Bioresources
Alliance Symposium on September
11-12, 2012 in
Sacramento.
The
Week's News
California
Agencies Release 2012
Bioenergy Action
Plan
California's
Bioenergy Interagency Working
Group has released the 2012
Bioenergy Action Plan, a
coordinated state agency
approach to addressing
challenges and maximizing
opportunities for the
development of bioenergy
projects that promote economic
development and provide the
greatest environmental benefit.
08/26/2012
WM and
Renmatix to Develop
Municipal Waste Conversion
to Sugar
Platform
Waste
Management, Inc. (WM) and
bio-sourced sugar specialist
Renmatix have announced a joint
development agreement (JDA) to
explore conversion of low-value
urban post-consumer waste into
sugars for manufacturing
biobased materials.
08/25/2012
PRM Energy
Will Build Gasifers for
BioNitrogen's
Biomass-to-Urea
Plants
Florida's
BioNitrogen Corporation has
announced a 3 year agreement
whereby PRM Energy Systems,
Inc. (PRME) of Hot Springs,
Arkansas, will build gasifiers
for BioNitrogen's
patent-pending biomass-to-urea
production facilities.
08/25/2012
Aemetis
Licenses Drop-in Biofuel
Technology from Chevron
Lummus
Global
California
based biofuels company Aemetis,
Inc, has obtained a license
from Chevron Lummus Global
(CLG) for the Biofuels
ISOCONVERSION Process for
production of to-specification
biodiesel and jet fuel.
08/24/2012
GE Develops
CHP plus CO2 Fertilization
for Houweling's Tomato
Greenhouses
GE
has announced a natural gas
combined heat and power project
that captures and delivers
engine exhaust carbon dioxide
to fertilize plants in
Houweling Tomatoes' 125 acre
greenhouse complex in
Camarillo, California.
08/24/2012
Chemtex
Secures $99MM USDA Loan
Guarantee for Cellulosic
Biorefinery
North Carolina
based Chemtex International,
Inc has announced receipt of a
conditional letter of
commitment for a $99 million
loan guarantee from the US
Department of Agriculture
(USDA). 08/24/2012
POET and
Agrivida Sign Technology
Collaboration
Agreement
POET Research
Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of POET LLC has announced a
collaborative technology
agreement with
Massachusetts-based Agrivida,
Inc to jointly develop and
integrate Agrivida's advanced
feedstock proceeding pathways
with POET's cellulosic biofuels
production.
08/24/2012
Next in
California ARB Chair's
Lecture Series: Low Carbon
Transportation
The California
Air Resources Board (ARB) has
announced the next Chair's
Lecture Series session, "Low
Carbon Transportation: A
Crucial Link to Economic and
National Security", scheduled
to start at noon on September
4, 2012 in the Byron Sher
auditorium, CalEPA Building in
Sacramento.
08/23/2012
NYSERDA
Grants $470K to American
Biogas Conditioning for
Dairy AD
Demo
The New York
State Energy Research and
Development Authority (NYSERDA)
has announced a grant of
$470,000 to Syracuse, New York
based American Biogas
Conditioning (ABC) for
demonstration of the company's
biogas clean-up technology on
diary biogas.
08/23/2012
Vision
Plasma Systems Supplies
Units for Fukushima RadWaste
Conversion
Based in Reno,
Nevada, the modular plasma
waste conversion company Vision
Plasma Systems, Inc. has
announced entering into a
contract with the Japanese firm
Cell Runner, Inc. for two Arc
Master I units, valued at about
$5.8 million per unit.
08/21/2012
Dynamic
Fuels Receives EPA Part 79
Registration for Renewable
Gasoline
Oklahoma based
Syntroleum Corporation has
announced that its subsidiary
Dynamic Fuels LLC, has been
approved by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) for
Part 79 registration for its
Renewable Gasoline Blendstock
10. 08/20/2012
Genuine
Bio-Fuel Expands to New
Jersey with 2nd Biodiesel
Refinery
Indiantown,
Florida based Genuine Bio-Fuel
Inc. has announced its plans to
expand operations by building a
second advanced biodiesel
production plant at the Lincoln
Park Airport in New Jersey.
08/20/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
09/19/2012: Proposals to the
City of Palo Alto for
Renewable
Electricity
The City of
Palo Alto, California, has
issued a Request for Proposal
(RFP) #147538 for Utility
Commodities, "Fall 2012
Renewable Electric Power", with
Bidder's Information Form
(Attachment A) and a Sample
Power Purchase Agreement
(Attachment E)..
08/25/2012
Update: DTSC
Extends Green Chemistry
Comment Period to October
11, 2012
Update: The
California Department of Toxic
Substances Control (DTSC) has
released a notice extending the
formal comment period by one
month for the Safer Consumer
Product "green chemistry"
proposed regulations.
08/20/2012
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