Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
37, September 10,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Our
country's got such a Mother
Hen over-protective
attitude, not just in our
laws, but in our whole
social approach to
governing. That certainly
extends into blocking
common sense for resource
recovery from waste. To our
own detriment, we
collectively have
constructed this entire
complex of rules and
policies based on a
distrust of Industry and
Science, bolstered by this
idea that it is appropriate
to protect everybody from
everything. So … look
around: how's that been
working for you? Ever
wonder what happens when
people decide to d...n the
torpedoes, and just build
the systems
needed?
There's this well-healed
science-based humanitarian
foundation called SNV
Netherlands (check em' out
in our News item) that's
been very busy for many
years, showing Third World
folks how to convert their
own wastes from liabilities
to assets. We're not
talking about a few
show-case projects to make
them look good to their own
backers. In the first half
of this year alone, they've
supported and directed the
local construction and
installation of over 46,000
small-scale anaerobic
digestion systems for
production of biogas in
Asia and
Africa.
They've
been setting up local
programs, teaching how the
units are built, how to run
them on people poop,
critter manure, food waste
and green waste, how to use
the biogas for heating,
cooking and distributed
power generation, then how
to use the sterilized
residual safely as a
fertilizer. The pictures
are great: four or five
people standing in hole
they dug by hand, using
hand-made adobe bricks and
whatever mortar they can
concoct to build these
oven-like dome shaped
digesters. Add a few pipes
for putting stuff in and
taking stuff out, and
you've got a system that
cleans up the environment,
makes fuel and fertilizer,
and teaches local people
hands-on skills they can
then build small businesses
on, spreading those tools
and skills.
What gets
me is that these same
skills and systems are
literally unknown in the
US, in our "civilized"
society. It is hard to even
imagine bucking all the
well-intentioned rules and
regs to establish even a
scattered few localized
waste conversion and
distributed energy systems
like these simple, elegant
solutions provide. But
FORTY-SIX THOUSAND, since
January of this year?
Wow.
Hey
Rube!
We here at
Teru Talk with our Cat Bird
view, are indeed starting to
see indications that Money
wants to get back involved in
what we've all been doing, but
doesn't quite know how, or
maybe it's who. We've all been
designing, developing and
dreaming about some very cool
approaches to making Waste into
Goods for the past five years,
so there's this serious pent-up
energy (no pun intended) that
needs to Get Busy. But we need
to get out there and do the
"Hey, Look at Me!" thing.
Putting out formal Press
Releases is great, but so is
the less-costly step of
catching up your own website
(you do have a website
by now, right?) Find and attend
conferences that make sense for
you, but resist simply singing
to your own choir: find the
people who might actually NEED
the stuff you've been
developing, and tell THEM about
it. If there is anything that
is different from five years
ago, it is how visible
Everything is now, thanks to
vast improvements in how we do
Everything on-line. That goes
for our industrial sector, too.
Get out there, and get
known.
The
Week's News
World
Energy, Hydro Dynamics Team
to Commercialize ShockWave
Cavitation
Georgia based Hydro Dynamics
Inc, has announced that a
teaming agreement has been
reached with Massachusetts'
biodiesel firm World Energy
through its subsidiary WMG
Services, LLC to expand
commercialization of Hydro
Dynamic's ShockWave Power
Biodiesel Reactor (SPR).
09/09/2012
Lignol and
Novozymes Complete
Cellulosic Enzyme
Optimization
Trials
British Columbia based Lignol
Energy Corporation has
announced that its
collaboration with Novozymes
has now completed optimization
trials for production of
cellulosic ethanol.
09/09/2012
DTSC
Schedules Green Chemistry
Workshop, Alternatives
Analysis
Guidelines
The California Department of
Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)
has announced a two day
Alternatives Analysis workshop
scheduled for October 9 and 10,
2012 from 9 am to 4 am in the
CalEPA Building, downtown
Sacramento.
09/07/2012
CEC Seeks
Public Input on Draft of
EPIC's First Triennial
Investment
Plan
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has announced
a workshop on September 27,
2012 to seek input on a draft
of the first triennial
investment plan for the
Electric Program Investment
Charge (EPIC; Docket
#12-EPIC-01) Program covering
2012 through 2014.
09/07/2012
Patriot
Bioenergy Plans to Develop
Whitley, Kentucky Integrated
Energy
Park
Kentucky based Patriot
Bioenergy Corporation has
announced that it has submitted
a Letter of Intent to Whitley
County, Kentucky officials to
develop an integrated energy
park for production of
bioenergy, biofuels and
bioproducts.
09/07/2012
Eco Hosts
Open House to Showcase Plans
for Dorset Renewable Energy
Park
The United Kingdom based
multi-tech energy company Eco
Sustainable Solutions Ltd.
(Eco) has announced a September
15, 2012 Open House to showcase
plans for its proposed
renewable energy park in
Dorset.
09/06/2012
Infinite
Enzymes Awarded $450K SBIR
Phase II for Plant-Based
Enzymes
Arkansas based Infinite Enzymes
has announced an award of
$450,000 from the US Department
of Agriculture (USDA) Small
Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) Phase II program.
09/06/2012
TEG and
Alkane Funded for Dagenham
Organic Waste Conversion
Plant
United Kingdom's (UK) TEG Group
plc has announced that
significant funding has been
secured to develop a 49,000
tonne per year organic waste
conversion facility in the
northeastern London borough of
Dagenham.
09/05/2012
Caterpillar
Investing $21MM in Blue
Sphere for US Anaerobic
Digestion
Projects
The Maryland / Israel
Development Center has called
attention to a local Israeli
report of a Caterpillar, Inc
agreement to provide $21
million in financing to the
Israeli anaerobic digestion
(AD) specialist firm Blue
Sphere Corporation for its
first two projects in the
United States.
09/05/2012
More than
46K Biogas Plants Installed
in Asia and Africa in 1st
Half of
2012
The philanthropic organization
SNV Netherlands has released
its September 2012 Newsletter,
leading with a report of
installation of more than
46,000 small-scale anaerobic
digestion (AD) systems in rural
Asia and Africa in the first
half of 2012.
09/05/2012
Oregon DEQ
Posts Conversion Technology
Rulemaking
Updates
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality has
posted a number of official
decisions and opinions
associated with the agency's
August meeting and including a
summary of that meeting.
09/04/2012
Codexis
Negotiates Global Enzyme
Development Rights for
Biofuels with
Shell
California based Codexis has
announced negotiated global
rights to develop and market
its CodeXymeTM
cellulase enzyme, developed
under a previous 2006
Collaborative Research
Agreement with Royal Dutch
Shell (the "Shell Research
Agreement").
09/04/2012
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