Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
45, November 5,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Last
Wednesday, we realized to
our horror (well, it
was Halloween, after
all) that even the major
energy efficiency programs
and associations don't
think of on-site waste
conversion to electricity,
heat and fuel in the same
sense as they do for,
say, energy efficient
lighting. Yet industrial
facilities continue gather
up their discard and pay
somebody to throw them
away, all the while
worrying about how to make
the plant more energy
efficient. Big
institutions paint the
roofs white and re-caulk
the windows, but pay
somebody to whisk away the
very food wastes and other
organics they could convert
to heat and power right
on-site.
Well,
some people Get It.
There's this repurposed
meat processing facility in
Chicago imaginatively
called "The
Plant." The project
in the process of
linking all the various
food-focused businesses
housed therein to a big
anaerobic digestion
system to convert their
food waste to biogas.
Once complete, the whole
complex won't need
fossil fuels for their
heat and power. The
Plant is an
efficient
facility, we'd say, for
both waste AND energy
management. What about
that new
co-generation plant
that just opened next to
the food processing
facility in Germany? They
figured out how to turn the
local "landscaping wood
waste" into steam to
process potatoes, while
sending excess renewable
power to the Grid: Energy
and Waste
efficiency, once
again.
When
thinking about "highest and
best use" of available
resources, consider never
letting left-over stuff
slip out of your grasp and
into the back-lot dumpster
in the first place.
Recovering fuel,
electricity, heat, and
other goods from left-overs
doesn't need to burn 100
gallons of fuel to move it
to some landfill, or
who-knows-how-much bunker
oil to ship it across the
ocean. Making manufacturing
plants more energy
efficient can also be
accomplished to a large
degree by converting those
left-overs to heat, power
and fuel right where the
stuff is generated, and it
saves the transport fuel to
boot.
This
isn't a question of a lack
of appropriate Technology
anymore; there are plenty
of clean conversion systems
out there. This isn't about
Recycling instead of
Conversion; it always takes
some form of conversion, or
"reprocessing" to
complete the
Recycling process. This is
about thinking, before we
let loose of the carpet
cut-ends and restaurant
table scraps, the
processing wastes from our
food production
plants.
Hey
Rube!
If your Business is involved in
improving the quality and
availability of the food
everyone eats, think about how
processes for more efficient
waste management complement the
efforts at the plant to improve
energy efficiency. Each cent
saved from converting fish
skins to biogas to heat and
power is just as effective,
just as important, as adding
more insulation; these things
should work together toward the
overall goal of creating
efficient systems. Whatever
"business" you are in, you
should jealously hoard those
scraps and pieces for
conversion to improve your
overall energy
efficiency, especially when
both waste management and
energy costs are a main part of
what it takes to produce the
goods you
sell.
Coming This Week
The Southern
California Waste Management
Forum is holding
its
Annual Conference &
Exhibit
this
Wednesday, November 7,
2012 in Pomona. Teru will
be speaking at the
conference's afternoon
roundtable on “AB 341’s
MCR – Lessons Learned.”
It promises to be a
lively session, so be
sure to
attend.
The
Week's News
RWE Innogy
Joint Venture Opens German
CHP Bioenergy
Plant
RWE Innogy, the renewable
energy arm of Germany's gas and
electric company RWE
Group, has
announced that
GBE Gocher Bioenergie just
celebrated the opening of its
biomass fueled combined heat
and power (CHP) or
co-generation facility on
Klever Straße.
11/03/2012
Groundbreaking
Announced for Biogas CHP
System at "The Plant" in
Chicago
"The Plant," a redevelopment
project in the City of Chicago,
has announced a November 9,
2012 groundbreaking ceremony
for the project's biogas
combined heat and power (CHP)
system.
11/03/2012
Elsevier and
DOE Collaborate on Free
Scientific Research Data
Access
Amsterdam based publisher
Elsevier, part of the Reed
Elsevier Group PLC, has
announced reaching a
collaborative agreement with
the US Department of Energy
(DOE) Office of Scientific
Technical Information (OSTI) to
add 300,000 of the DOE's
full-text technical reports to
Elsevier's free on-line search
tools, SciVerse Hub and Scirus.
11/02/2012
CEC Releases
Final Documents for Electric
Program Investment
Charge
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has posted
final documents for the
Electric Program Investment
Charge submitted by the CEC to
the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC).
11/02/2012
Energos
Thermal Conversion Selected
for Milton Keynes Waste
Recovery
Park
The United Kingdom's (UK)
advanced thermal waste
conversion company ENERGOS has
announced its selection for
waste treatment in the proposed
multi-technology Milton Keynes
Waste Recovery Park.
11/02/2012
Sapphire
Energy and ISB Collaborate
on Algae-to-Oil
Commercialization
San Diego based Sapphire Energy
has announced a strategic
partnership with Seattle's
Institute for Systems Biology
(ISB) to advance the research,
development, and
commercialization of algal
biofuels.
11/01/2012
Indian River
BioEnergy Center Begins
Renewable Power
Generation
Illinois-based INEOS Bio, part
of the global chemicals company
INEOS, announced that the
Indian River BioEnergy Center
is now generating renewable
electricity sufficient to power
its own facility and for export
to the regional grid.
11/01/2012
REG Acquires
Idle 15 MGY Texas
Biorefinery to Produce
REG-9000®
Biodiesel
Iowa-based biodiesel production
company Renewable Energy Group
(REG) has announced an
expansion of its production
base to more than 225 million
gallons, with the acquisition
of a 15 million gallon per year
(MGY) biodiesel facility
located in New Boston, Texas.
11/01/2012
ZeaChem
Completes Boardman
Cellulosic Ethanol
Biorefinery
Construction
Colorado based ZeaChem, Inc has
announced completion of second
phase construction of its
cellulosic ethanol plant in
Boardman, Oregon.
10/30/2012
EnviTec
Opens Biogas Processing
Pilot Plant at Sachsendorf
Site
German biogas specialists
EnviTec Biogas AG has announced
the official opening of its
industrial scale biogas
processing pilot plant at the
Sachsendorf site in Germany.
10/30/2012
BD AGRO
Constructs Russia's Largest
AD-to Biogas Power
Plant
German anaerobic digestion (AD)
company BD AgroRenewables (BD
AGRO) has announced completion
of a 2.4 megawatt biogas power
plant south of Moscow outside
of the city of Belgorod in an
agricultural region of Russia.
10/30/2012
AmeyCespa is
Preferred Bidder to Develop
Milton Keynes Waste Recovery
Park
The United Kingdom based waste
management company AmeyCespa
has announced that it has been
selected by Milton Keynes
Council as the preferred bidder
for the design, development,
and operation of the
multi-stage Milton Keynes Waste
Recovery Park.
10/30/2012
Neste Oil
Adds Renewable Naphtha to
Commercial Product
Line
Neste Oil has announced
addition of renewable naphtha
to its NExBTL product line for
sale to its commercial
customers.
10/29/2012
Novozymes
Invests in Beta Renewables,
Forms Strategic
Partnership
Danish enzyme company Novozymes
has announced a strategic
partnership with the cellulosic
biofuels company Beta
Renewables to market,
demonstrate, and guarantee
their cellulosic biofuels
production processes and
products.
10/29/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
11/30/2012: Applications for
West Midlands UK Bioenergy
Competition
The European Bioenergy Research
Institute (EBRI) headquartered
at Aston University, United
Kingdom (UK), administers the
BioenNW network to "deliver
local bioenergy to northwestern
Europe."
11/02/2012
Due
03/01/2013: Long-Term Energy
Proposals to Maine
PUC
The Maine Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) has announced
the release of the 2012-2013
Request for Proposals (RFP) for
long-term contract proposals
from qualified resources for
capacity, associated energy
and/or Renewable Energy
Credits.
11/04/2012
|
