Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
49, December 3,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
This last
month of the year is a time
when we all take a big deep
breath, make a few
last-minute calls and
planning meetings, and try
to focus on how to hit the
ground running right after
the New Year. It is also a
time we can dispense with
some of this year's
baggage, learn from the
tough lessons and maybe
even smile a bit that some
evidence of progress is
apparent. That's the way of
it: some things good, some
things bad, some whose cost
and value have yet to be
determined. For our own
societal sanity and
security, we need to
consider the
balances.
For the
World of Waste Conversion,
we can smile at the growing
global recognition that
intercepting discards and
turning them back into raw
materials locally
makes more sense than
brokering waste overseas.
Knowing how much of those
resources are shuffled off,
and to what end, is the
only way we can begin to
really understand the flow;
you can't manage what you
don't count. Watch always
for the Highest and Best
Use. But like looking for
what's been swept under
that proverbial rug, when
we really ask those tough
questions, we best be ready
to deal with the answers as
there is no Easy
Button.
There's
light showing through
cracks in project
permitting as a result of
refocusing on regional
greenhouse gas emissions
and carbon footprint
assessment. The tool of
Life Cycle Assessment says
we can balance impacts
caused by putting in a
clean conversion system
over here if it is
off-setting the greater
damage being caused by the
older systems over
there. Trade-offs are
becoming important.
Cautiously, Teru Talk is
watching how this plays out
with California's new Cap
& Trade program: Big
Polluters help pay for
cleaner systems
developments. Yet there's
no good in wrecking our
major industries to benefit
the minor ones; any
new costs on the balance
sheet need to be very
critically
questioned.
The US
Department of Defense has
muscled its way to the
forefront, promoting all
sorts of waste and biomass
conversion to energy and
especially into
non-petroleum fuels. The
behemoth machine of the
military burns fuel like a
firestorm; turning down the
tap connected to embattled
mid-eastern oilfields just
makes sense on so many
levels. Like with the Space
Program, direct application
of deeply funded Science
with a Purpose allows for
great leaps in our
understanding, and in
general commercialization.
We're now seeing
sustainable fuels
development come out of the
labs, pilots, and demos,
and into full scale high
volume production; the
dollars per gallon may be
high, but blood spilt costs
far more. Yet remember:
this is an energy policy of
"All of the Above";
progress we make in waste
to fuels, we'll pay for
elsewhere.
Gloomy
perspectives? Not when we
consider the stagnation
we're clearly emerging
from, for this Waste
Conversion for Resource
Recovery sector as with
just about all other parts
of our economy. There's
bound to be some burnt
batches, but at least we're
Cooking (with
biofuel)!
Hey
Rube!
As Teru Talk
watches the flow of start-up
funding, we constantly see the
National Science Foundation as
the source that helps push Good
Ideas of Waste Conversion
through the early trials and
into commercial production.
Take a good look at this week's
NSF Action Item: the 2013 Small
Business Tech Transfer (STTR)
solicitation is now open; a
Letter of Intent is due the 8th
of January with Final Proposals
due up to the 6th of February.
Gotta play to
win.
The
Week's News
Resolute
Forest Products to Build
Industrial Wood Pellet
Plant
Quebec based Resolute Forest
Products has announced plans to
develop an industrial wood
pellet manufacturing facility
to use residual wood wastes
from its Thunder Bay, Ontario
sawmill.
12/02/2012
Weltec
Biopower Contracts to Build
500 kWe Biogas Plant in
France
German company Weltech Biopower
has announced signing a
contract for a "cooperative
agricultural biogas plant" with
the French company Methaneo to
develop a 500 kilowatt electric
(kWe) anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility in Saint-Varent,
western France.
12/01/2012
Vision
Plasma, WTEC in Teaming
Discussions on Sludge
Conversion
Nevada based Vision Plasma
Systems, Inc has provided
details of teaming discussions
with Waste to Energy Canada
(WTEC), integrating Vision
Plasma's Arc Master I energy
production systems with WTEC's
modular waste conversion
capabilities.
2/01/2012
OriginOil
Licenses Technology for
Canadian Oil Sands Waste
Conversion
Los Angeles based algae
production and waste conversion
systems developer OriginOil has
announced the second key
licensing agreement for its
Clean Frac systems, this time
targeting waste treatment and
resource recovery in the
Canadian oil sands market.
12/01/2012
Carbon
Sciences to Develop
Small-Scale Gas-to-Liquid
Fuel
Plants
California based Carbon
Sciences, Inc has announced its
decision to develop "mini-GTL"
plants, modular units that can
convert relatively small volume
streams of waste / stranded
natural gas into liquid (GTL)
fuels.
12/01/2012
Ameresco's
Butte County Landfill Gas to
Energy Plant Grand
Opening
Massachusetts based Ameresco,
Inc has announced a December 5,
2012 ribbon cutting ceremony at
the company's new Butte County,
California landfill gas to
energy plant.
11/29/2012
UK's DECC
Launches Energy Bill,
Delivers Annual Energy
Strategy
Edward Davey, Secretary of the
Department of Energy and
Climate Change (DECC) in the
United Kingdom, delivers the
annual Statement on Energy
Policy to Parliament today.
11/29/2012
CleanWorld
Schedules Inaugural Open
House for 2nd Sacramento
Biodigester
California based CleanWorld has
announced an open house to
celebrate launch of its 2nd
organic waste recycling center
in the Sacramento region,
established in conjunction with
the Sacramento South Area
Transfer Station.
11/28/2012
GreenAngel
Energy Seeks $100K Private
Placement
Canadian investment company
GreenAngel Energy Corp has
announced the launch of a
non-brokered private placement
to accredited investors to
raise a maximum of $100,000
from the issuance of one
million units at a price of
$0.10 per unit.
11/28/2012
FortisBC
Begins Operation of Landfill
Biogas Upgrade Plant for
Grid
Injection
The Canadian utility FortisBC
has announced that raw biogas
extracted from the Salmon Arm
Landfill will be upgraded and
injected into the local natural
gas distribution system as the
first such project in British
Columbia.
11/26/2012
Asian
Development Bank Signs
$800MM in Loans for Chinese
Waste to
Energy
The Asian Development Bank has
announced four loans of around
$200 million each to support
waste to energy (WtE) projects
in the People's Republic of
China (PRC) to subsidiaries of
China Everbright International
Ltd.
11/26/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
01/08/2013: Letter of Intent
to NSF for STTR FY-2013
Solicitation
The National Science Foundation
(NSF) has released the Fiscal
Year 2013 Small Business
Technology Transfer Program
(STTR) solicitation, this year
focused on Accelerating
Sustainability using Enabling
Technologies (ASET).
11/29/2012
Due
01/22/2013: Comments on
WAPA-DOE Draft
Recommendations
The Western Area Power
Administration (WAPA or
Western) has released a Notice
of Availability in the Federal
Register of draft
recommendations of the WAPA/DOE
Joint Outreach Team (JOT) for
review and comment by WAPA’s
customers, Tribes,
stakeholders, and the public at
large.
12/02/2012
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