Teru Talk - 2012 Newsletter V-II-35

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

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'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

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

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

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 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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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: 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

Teru Talk Newsletter

Teru's Trash Talk

Hey Rube!

The Week's Extra Reading

The Week's News

The Week's Action Items