Teru Talk - 2012 Newsletter V-II-42

There's the old joke, "Raise your hand, who's not here…" and it applies to this business of tracking the ways communities convert waste. The Internet is a pretty awesome tool. The amount of stuff entering the information flow making up Global Communications is certainly overwhelming. We humans are witnessing more about our own foibles than we ever could before and just Seeing So Much is changing how we perceive life. But there are gaps, blank places in this view and it is all too easy to assume nothing is actually occurring when we don't see it on the local news. Teru Talk's focus on sussing out how Waste gets turned back into Goods is subject to this same blindness, but that doesn't mean there aren't important advances someplace just because we can't see around the corners.

Take India for an example … Serious amount of people there, and all doing the Throw-Away thing every single day like the rest of us. What we can glean shows that the Indian government is furiously trying to figure out Waste Conversion, and those that find a way to understand India are finding that their International Waste Conversion Business is booming. But Press Releases? Not so much. More often, the only glimpse we get is from their local news reporters chatting up the guys at some plant, or guessing at what the Government over there is doing with all that trash.

Here's one: Hindustani Times says the Tihar Jail in northern India is working with (of all things) the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre to set up two anaerobic digestion systems at the prison for conversion of the organic waste from 12,500 inmates (!!!!) into biogas to run the kitchens and bakery, cutting disposal and fuel costs to the nub. The project will move from Design to Operations in just three months. US prisons could learn a thing or two from Tihar.

But the news dark corners aren't just in Berzerkistan: it is especially difficult for small, innovative companies to know when, what, and how much to say about what they have been doing. Everybody wants to wait just a bit longer until the Big Thing is completed. Even some of the successful firms often are slackers about shining a light on their own work. They are concentrating on Closing the Deal and Doing the Job, not squawking about how cool they are. Good Business, but hard to See, to observe and report. Letting the world know what you are up to is a relatively cheap way to increase the speed of global economic recovery, and it is simply astounding how far and how fast the Word gets out, if you just take the time to put that Word into the common info flow. Winking in the dark just doesn't get it done.

Hey Rube!

Here's a nice approach we spotted this week, figured out by a UK company that makes custom biogas storage systems. Once a week, they publish an interview with one of the Big AD-to-Biogas Companies that buy their systems, creating Business to Business discussions that get right into the meat of each company's offerings. You know, that works well for the interviewer and the interviewee and is a slick method almost any small company could copy. Kudos to Base Structures for a nice way to help us peek around corners.

The Week's News

The Department of Delhi Prisons accepted bids late last month for the turn-key design, supply, installation, and maintenance of anaerobic digestion (AD) systems (biogas plants) at the Central Jail, located at Tihar Village, National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. 10/14/2012

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has announced the release of a short report called The Promise of Biomass, assessing the type and availability of biomass by 2030 for use as fuel for conversion to energy, fuels and other commodities. 10/14/2012

French-based bio-products company Global Bioenergies has announced success in developing a metabolic pathway for direct conversion of biomass to propylene, a foundation chemical previously sourced strictly from petroleum. 10/14/2012

Scotland's economic development agency Scottish Enterprise has announced that the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) has launched the Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF). 10/12/2012

Canada's pyrolysis specialist Ensyn has announced a strategic alliance that includes formation of a 50-50 joint venture with Brazilian forest products company Fibria Celulose SA; Fibria will invest $20 million in Ensyn as part of the agreement. 10/11/2012

California based OriginOil has announced approval of a 20-year international Patent #2010239380 from the Australian patent office for its algae harvesting technology. 10/11/2012

Dynamic Energy Alliance Corporation (DEAC) has announced its subsidiary Dynamic Energy IP, LLC has entered into an agreement in principle to acquire an exclusive license from the firm Terpen Kraftig LLC (TKF), contingent upon DEAC's ability to raise the required capital. 10/11/2012

At this week's Retail Forum in Brussels, the European Commission (EC) reported that its Environmental Commissioner Janez Potočnik reinforced the EC's directive to cut food waste disposal in half by 2020 and called on retailers to "spearhead the creation of the green economy by taking progressive actions that go beyond the easy pickings." 10/11/2012

The Chamber Bridlington and Yorkshire Coast (CBYC) Business Awards have been announced for 2012, and GWE Biogas Ltd of East Yorkshire, United Kingdom, has taken the top awards as both the Overall Business of the Year and the Green Business of the Year. 10/11/2012

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has announced selection of Round 2 awardees from the January 2012 Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program Grant Solicitation (PON-11-601). 10/10/2012

Two international giants, "The Chemical Company" BASF and multi-sector CSM, have announced that they have established a joint venture for production and sale of bio-sourced succinic acid. 10/10/2012

The World Energy Forum 2012 has announced awardees in the categories of Policy, Technology Innovation, Humanitarian, Best Practice, Environmental, and Woman in Energy; awards are to be presented on the opening day of its Forum on October 22-24, 2012 in Dubai. 10/10/2012

The Global Methane Initiative (GMI) has released the International Best Practices Guide for Landfill Gas Energy Projects, providing a broad overview of the development process for landfill gas energy projects (LFGE) projects and presenting the technological, economic, and political considerations that typically affect the success of LFGE projects in international settings. 10/10/2012

Colorado based Genesis Biofuel, Inc has announced formation of a joint venture with the company Abundant Energy Solutions (AES), an affiliate of Colorado Energy Research Technologies (CERT). 10/10/2012

Recycling technology developer Enval Ltd has announced selection of the Alconbury Enterprise Zone about 50 miles north of London as the site for the company's first commercial plastic-aluminum laminate reprocessing facility. 10/08/2012

Headquartered in Bristol, Base Structures Ltd has now posted the second in a series of "Talking Head" interviews with key anaerobic digestion (AD) companies in Europe and New Zealand, this time with Richard Gueterbock, communications director of Clearfleau Ltd. 10/08/2012

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it has presented Dixon Ridge Farms founder Russ Lester with the Pacific Southwest Region’s (Region 9) 2012 Sustainable Agricultural Champion Award. 10/08/2012

The Week's Action Items

The University of British Columbia (UBC) has announced start of acceptance of applications for up to a four-year doctoral fellowship offering $60,000 annually under its Future Forests Fellowship program. 10/08/2012

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The Week's News

The Week's Action Items