Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume II, Issue
9, February 27,
2012
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
It is the
nature of Commerce that a
supply chain is necessary
to economically and
efficiently get commodities
from source to final
market. Water flows to the
user when the plumbing goes
from the street main to the
house tap; a supply chain
system is needed to get
ripe tomatoes from the
field through the stores to
the hamburger. Sure, you
can buy tomatoes from the
farmer, and you can grow
your own Better Boys at
home, but for actual
Commerce to make an impact
in a region, the supply
chain needs to be in place.
It stands to reason this is
true for the Bio-Sourced
Economy, and conversely,
that where no real supply
chain exists, that economy
is going to be piece-meal
at best. When we see an
agreement between a
feedstock aggregator or
harvester and companies
that can convert that
feedstock to a commodity,
we are looking
at the first link in
the supply chain. When a
conversion company gets an
off-take agreement in place
to use, say, 100,000
gallons of bio-sourced
aviation fuel, we can
recognize source to process
to use, commerce along one
path of the supply
chain.
Enter
here the socio-economic
consideration of "waste" as
a source. Keeping our
streets free of mounds of
rotting garbage certainly
has a value; the movement
of waste from the curb to a
recycling and resource
recovery facility reduces
the collateral damage of
unmanaged waste. Sorting
that waste into recyclables
reduces the cost to society
in many ways, yet still
tends to have a real cost,
since the dollars garnered
from sale of plastic, glass
and metal seldom are enough
to pay for the rest of the
management.
There is
a strong negative value to
society and the environment
when our forests
catastrophically catch fire
because too much fuel is
present. Avoiding forest
fires and cleaning up
bug-killed deadwood
certainly costs, but
reduces fire danger and
generates biomass. There's
value to be placed on a ton
of wood gathered, chipped
and hauled out of a forest;
the chips have more value
at the door of the
biorefinery than they did
on the forest floor, and
biomass value again
increases as fuel for the
biorefinery.
Supply
chains have to be in place
to convert feedstock like
biomass to gasoline
alternatives like biofuels.
Each link needs a real
company to hand off the
goods, continue the flow of
Commerce, and add value
along the way: with each
refinement, the Supply
Chain becomes a more
effective Value Chain. We
are now seeing
bio-technology effectively
and repeatedly figure out
how to connect the source
to the market. With so many
supply chains being
configured, entire commerce
networks are beginning to
take shape.
The most
valuable form of a
completed Value Chain
starts when a source is
causing significant social
and environmental damage,
or "cost", like fuel
over-loading in the forest,
under-utilized tons of
agricultural residue or
burgeoning mountains of
municipal waste, and adding
value at each step, turns
that huge liability into a
high-priced Commodity
asset.
Hey
Rube!
As you review the news from
this past week, think about how
each crucial agreement is a
link in the Value Chain. Think
about how Market Demand tugs on
the far end of that chain, and
how what you buy impacts that
market demand. Then go ye out
each day, and find ways to give
the Bio-Economy Value Chain a
good steady
pull.
The
Week's News
CEC
Schedules Workshop on
Renewable Energy Research
Funded Through
PIER
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) will conduct a
workshop on February 29, 2012
on renewable energy research
funded under the agency's
Public Interest Energy Research
(PIER) program to present and
discuss achievement.
02/26/2012
Provincial
Government of Canada Backs
Waste Fish Oil to Biodiesel
Research
The Provincial
Government of Newfoundland and
Labrador, Canada, announced
that the Canadian Ministry of
Fisheries and Aquaculture has
awarded a grant of $89,100 to
continue research of waste fish
oil to biodiesel research and
development.
02/25/2012
Arisdyne's
Controlled Flow Cavitation
System Licensed by United
Ethanol
Ohio-based
pre-treatment systems
specialist Arisdyne has
announced that United Ethanol
has agreed to license and
acquire the company's patented
Controlled Flow Cavitation
(CFCTM) equipment.
02/25/2012
ZeaChem
Signs Drop-In Fuel
Development
Contract
Colorado-based
ZeaChem has announced that it
has completed negotiations and
signed a developmental contract
with the US Department of
Agriculture to receive $12
million of the $40 million
grant awarded last September to
Washington State University
(WSU). 02/24/2012
UK
Researchers Advance Biofilm
to Fuel Cell Electricity
with Bugs from
Space
A
research team at Newcastle
University (NU) in the United
Kingdom has announced that
bacteria typically found 30
kilometers above the earth are
highly efficient electricity
generators. 02/24/2012
GE Jenbacher
Engines Will Power China's
Largest Landfill Gas to
Energy
Project
General
Electric (GE) has announced
it is preparing to ship
seven J420 Jenbacher engines
to Laogang Renewable Energy
Company in Shanghai
Municipality, China.
02/24/2012
CalCEF,
ACORE and EPRI Lead 21st
Century Renewable Energy
Forum
The California
Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF)
announced its participation in
the first of a series of forums
this week to outline the path
of U.S. renewable energy in the
21st century.
02/24/2012
Alberta
Canada Supports Biochar
Testing and
Commercialization
The Minister
of State for Western Economic
Diversification in Alberta,
Canada has announced federal
funding of $900,000 to Lakeland
College's Centre for
Sustainable Innovation.
02/23/2012
Novozymes
Unveils Low-Cost / High
Volume Cellic® CTec3
Enzyme
In
a bid to again drop the cost of
enzymatic hydrolysis of
cellulosic biomass, the Dutch
headquartered pretreatment
specialist Novozymes has
announced the commercial
availability of a new enzyme
for production of advanced
biofuels from agricultural
wastes and residues.
02/23/2012
Mt Poso
Cogeneration Plant Completes
Coal-to-Biomass Fuel
Switch
Macpherson
Energy Company and DTE Energy
Services, co-owners of the Mt.
Poso Cogeneration Plant in Kern
County east of Bakersfield,
California have announced that
the previously coal-fired plant
is now completely fueled by
biomass. 02/23/2012
Ameresco and
Philadelphia Water Dept
Partner for Wastewater to
Biogas
Plant
Massachusetts
based Amaresco has announced an
agreement with the
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Water Department (PWD) to
design, build and maintain a
5.6 megawatt, $47.5 million
wastewater-to-biogas plant,
named the Northeast Water
Pollution Control Plant
(NEWPCP) Biogas Project.
02/22/2012
Out of Ashes
BioEnergy Introducing
Turtleback Biochar at BC
Farmers
Market
British
Columbia (BC) based commercial
horticultural services company
Out of Ashes BioEnergy Inc has
announced availability of its
new organic soil enhancement
product Turtleback® Biochar,
product of thermal conversion
of local sawmill wood-waste and
brush piles that otherwise
would be burned.
02/22/2012
APP to
Deliver Waste-Sourced Syngas
to National Grid
Pipeline
London-based
Advanced Plasma Power (APP) has
announced a project partnership
with developer Progressive
Energy to deliver
plasma-generated waste-sourced
synthetic fuel gas to National
Grid's pipeline for
distribution.
02/22/2012
Forest
Carbon Partners Launch
Anticipates California's
Offset
Market
New Forests
Inc. has announced the launch
of Forest Carbon Partners, an
investment vehicle for private
forestry project financing and
development designed for
California's soon to be
realized carbon offset market.
02/21/2012
UK Carpet
Recycling for Reuse and
Energy Recovery on the
Increase
The non-profit
association Carpet Recycling
United Kingdom (CRUK) has
released a short report
counting last year's
achievements and identifying
carpet recycling and recovery
efforts for 2012.
02/20/2012
Commercial-Scale
Biodiesel Production Uses
Enzymatic
Transesterification
Florida-based
70CentsaGallon.com has let Teru
Talk know that
commercialization of an
enzymatic transesterification
process has reached another
milestone with availability of
the Precision E2500 module.
02/20/2012
The Week's Action
Items
Due
03/12/2012: Abstracts for
American Academy of Sciences
IC
EST2012
The American
Academy of Sciences (AAS) has
released its 2012 Call for
Abstracts, a Call for Exhibits
and the opening of advanced
registration for its 6th
International Conference on
Environmental Science and
Technology (IC EST2012),
scheduled for June 25-29, 2012
in Houston, Texas.
02/21/2012
Due
05/08/2012: Applications for
the 2012 Cleantech
Open
The
volunteer-run Cleantech Open
has announced the launch of its
6th annual Accelerator and
Competition, and scheduled a
launch party at the NASA AMES
facility in Mountain View,
California on March 23, 2012.
02/23/2012
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