Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
8, February 20,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Just a
spoonful of sugar … well,
more like a few hundred box
car loads … and we start to
see the REAL path to
low-cost, high volume
bio-production of biofuels
and biochemicals. Using
complex biomass to get
simpler sugar for
biorefining works a lot
like building with lumber;
someone has to get a tree
so we can cut it down to
fit.
Once you
have the enough of the
right kind of lumber, or
sugar, you can (if you are
creative enough) make just
about anything. The trick
is getting the rough-grade
boards or the sugar in the
first place, and not too
surprising, getting trees
out of the forest and
taking them apart to make
lumber bears a strong
resemblance to getting
almost any kind of biomass
gathered up, ripped apart
and turned into sugar.
Trees are, after all, a big
linear chunk of cellulose.
It stands to reason that if
you can rip those long
chains down to your basic
2X4, or to sucrose and
xylose, you get very useful
"building
materials".
All over
the world, people are
figuring out how to take
apart really low-grade
biomass, such as weedy
quick-growing plants,
waste-sourced wood and
pulp, and residues left
after agricultural and
forest harvesting, and make
great quantities of
carbohydrate-laden raw
material for biorefining.
New methods are showing up
almost daily to accomplish
the same rip-saw action
with less harsh chemicals,
less expensive energy
input.
The
industry has commercialized
the precision tool sets for
biorefining, and has now
managed the raw materials
conversion stage.
Fortunately, some are also
paying serious attention to
what biomass can be
acquired from where with
the least damage and the
most good, as with the new
Forest Planning Rules. As
our society weans itself
from Petro-Addiction by
substituting bio-sourced
everything, we're going to
quickly find out just how
valuable that low-grade
biomass really
is.
Hey
Rube!
There are
several action items this week,
including fall conferences that
are now making their Call for
Papers. If indeed you DO have
something to crow about, if you
have seriously figured out a
critical step, it is time for
Show and Tell. Get out there
and discuss what works, what
might be coaxed into working,
and if you are REALLY brave,
what didn’t work.
The
Week's News
BioAmber,
NatureWorks Form Joint
Venture to Bring New
BioPolymers to
Market
Two
Minnesota based companies,
BioAmber and NatureWorks
have announced formation of
AmberWorks as a joint
venture to speed
commercialization and market
penetration of bio-based
polymers.
02/16/2012
SucreSource
Contracts to Design and
Build Korean Wood-to-Sugar
Facility
California-based
SucreSource, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of BlueFire
Renewables, Inc, has announced
signing a cellulose-to-sugar
systems supply contract with a
Korean petroleum firm GS
Caltex. 02/15/2012
Capstone
Supplies Microturbine for
Philippines Biogas to
CHP
California-based
Capstone Turbine Corporation
announced that its Asia-Pacific
distributor Sobono Energy has
secured a contract to supply
and install a Capstone C800
microturbine power package to
Biotech Farms, Inc.
02/15/2012
Oregon DEQ
Conversion Technology
Rulemaking
Advances
The Oregon
Department of Environmental
Quality announces that it has
now formed an Advisory
Committee to provide on-going
support for its Conversion
Technology (CT) Rulemaking
process, and has held its first
public meeting on January 27,
2012. 02/15/2012
ADBA
Launches Advisory Service
for Farm-Based Anaerobic
Digestion
The Anaerobic
Digestion and Biogas
Association (ADBA) has
announced the launch of a free
advisory service for United
Kingdom (UK) farmers to assist
in the complex decision-making
process involved in developing
on-farm anaerobic digestion
(AD).
02/15/2012
Dutch-Portuguese
Research Advances Hydrogen
Production from
Lignocellulose
A
provisional pre-publication
article has been released by
the journal "Biotechnology
for Biofuels," reporting on
collaborative work to
optimize microbial hydrogen
production from cellulosic
biomass.
02/14/2012
Joule Awards
EPCM Contract to Fluor for
Commercial Scale Biorefinery
in NM
Texas-based
Fluor Corporation has announced
it has secured a contract from
Joule Unlimited, Inc for the
engineering, procurement and
construction management (EPCM)
to design and build a new
biorefinery in New Mexico (NM).
02/14/2012
Foster
Wheeler Secures Swedish
Contract for 35 MWe
Bioenergy Plant
System
Swiss
engineering company Foster
Wheeler announced that its
Global Power Group has been
awarded a contract to design,
construct, supply, and install
a 35 megawatt electric
biomass-fired circulating
fluidized bed (CFB) boiler
island. 02/14/2012
Forest
Products Lab Reports on Use
of Beetle Killed Trees for
Renewable
Energy
The US
Forest Service's Forest
Products Laboratory (FPL)
has announced the release of
a market-oriented status
report entitled "Economic
Use of Beetle Killed Trees",
laying out a strategic
framework for making good
use of this ever-increasing
product of infestations.
02/13/2012
DOE
Multi-Year Biomass Program
Plan and Presentations
Available
The US
Department of Energy (DOE)
hosted a webinar last week,
providing a status report and
thorough introduction to the
draft Biomass Roadmap released
last November.
02/13/2012
Wyss
Institute Combines Shrimp
Shells and Silk Protein to
Make
"Shrilk"
Harvard
University has announced that
researchers at its Wyss
Institute for Biologically
Inspired Engineering are
micro-layering the chitin from
discarded shrimp shells and the
protein fibroin from silk to
make "shrilk".
02/13/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
02/29/2012: Comments to CPUC
on Electric Program
Investment
Charge
Last week, the
California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) released its
Staff Proposal as Attachment A
to Phase 2 of a Scoping Ruling
(Proceeding R1110003) on the
Electric Program Investment
Charge (EPIC).
02/16/2012
Due
03/01/2012: Grant
Applications for Woody
Biomass Utilization
Projects
The US Forest Service's
Technology Marketing Unit (TMU)
housed at the Wisconsin based
Forest Products Laboratory has
released a Request for
Proposals (RFP) seeking
projects that need engineering
services for low-value biomass
utilization to generate
renewable energy while
decreasing fire risk in rural
communities.
02/18/2012
Due
03/07/2012: Proposals to
SMUD for Biomethane
Technical
Services
The Sacramento Municipal
Utility District (SMUD)
Electronic Bid Solicitation
System (EBSS) has posted a
request for proposals (RFP#
120032.OS) for Biomethane
Technical Services.
02/16/2012
Due
03/09/2012: Abstracts for
EFIB 2012 - "The Bioeconomy
Goes
Global"
The 2012
European Forum for Industrial
Biotechnology and Biobased
Economy (EFIB 2012) organizers
are accepting submission of
proposed papers for this year's
conference, scheduled for
October 16-18, 2012 in
Dusseldorf, Germany.
02/15/2012
Due
03/15/2012: Abstracts for
Gasification Technologies
Council
Conference
The
Gasification Technologies
Council (GTC) has issued a Call
for Papers for the 2012
Gasification Technologies
Conference, scheduled for
October 28-31, 2012 in
Washington, D.C.
02/15/2012
|