Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
1, January 7,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"TerĂº")
Teru's Trash Talk
Cautious
optimism, that's the
approach that seems
warranted right now. World
'round, some are starting
to recognize that our
industries and our
governments have been
throwing our precious
waste-sourced resources
away and stripping the most
accessible raw materials
right out from under our
manufacturing capacity. The
big Materials Recovery
Facilities are great at
gathering everything into
one big pile and even at
sorting some of it out into
lots of little piles, but
actually following through
with Conversion to Raw
Materials? Not so much, not
when you can't push a
permit through, so away go
the goodies to anybody who
will buy 'em. We've got the
modular tools; we certainly
have the trash. Now we need
to let MRFs handle the last
steps in turning Waste back
into Not Waste via
reprocessing.
In the
UK, the recycling industry
IS the "Reprocessing"
industry and their Resource
Association has been
working with the UK
government on MRF
Performance Standards. They
want to spotlight shoddy
records keeping, under-par
recyclate cleaning, and
unnecessary materials
exporting. Where in-country
waste conversion can
happen, it is being
promoted and supported by
the agencies and industries
alike. This is a far cry
from not too long ago when
we were hearing the babble
of Recycling instead of
Waste Conversion. Whatever
it takes to turn discards
back into the raw materials
ready for remanufacturing,
THAT is what gets the
vote.
Whether
we're making great new fuel
out of cruddy old waste
plastic, bio-sourced
chemicals out of wheat
straw, or biogas from
supermarket overstocks, a
big part of the Hat Trick
is that it can happen
Locally, and that saves
transport miles while
cutting greenhouse gases.
Everything's about the
Climate, it seems, so
things that clearly cut
emissions get top billing.
Then there's this attention
to Life Cycle Assessment,
where you just can't
myopically judge without
considering all steps in a
process. When you do that,
it becomes quite clear that
you should be putting in
clean new processing Over
Here that replaces dirty
old processing Over There.
Local waste conversion to
usable goods sure beats
paying to store that same
discarded stuff in a hole
in the ground, or shipping
it half way around the
world just so somebody can
make another plastic
picture frame.
Waste
Plastic, and Waste Food:
two kinds of discards that
usually end up in the dump
are also two of the easier
types of crud and goo to
reprocess right at the MRF
into fuel, electricity, and
other commodities. By this
time next year, we're gonna
see some very smart folks
in the larger
municipalities latch onto
this "low hanging fruit"
for clean, economical waste
conversion. There ya go:
our first prediction for
2013!
Hey
Rube!
Keep one eye on New York's new
Clean Energy Proof-of-Concept
Centers. The NYSERDA is
shelling out $15 million over
five years to establish three
highly collaborative Centers
aimed at extracting Good Ideas
out of the citizenry and
pushing those clean energy
efforts out into the
marketplace. After five years,
the Centers are supposed to
keep themselves funded. If
you've got the ante, betting on
those upstarts to get to
start-up might not be a bad
play.
The
Week's Extra Reading
The California Energy
Commission requested
stakeholder input regarding
a proposed renewable energy
planning grant solicitation
to be issued soon. Teru
submitted his comments
last Friday. Take a
look.
The
Week's News
UK's
Southern Water Is Installing
CHP Plant to Convert Biogas
at
Sandown
The water and wastewater
utility Southern Water has
announced that it is installing
a combined heat and power (CHP)
facility at its Sandown
Wastewater Treatment Works
(SWTW) to convert biogas
created during the treatment
process to electricity and
heat.
01/06/2013
Klean
Industries, Dow Chemical
Collaborate on Waste
Plastics to
Oil,Chemicals
Vancouver based Klean
Industries has announced its
extension of a three year
collaboration with Dow Chemical
Company to further develop
recovery of energy, oil and
chemicals from waste plastics.
01/06/2013
Sweetwater
Energy Secures Long-Term
Supply Agreement with Ace
Ethanol
Rochester, New York based
cellulosic sugar producer
Sweetwater Energy has announced
signing a long-term supply
agreement of up to 16 years
with the Wisconsin
headquartered corn ethanol
production company Ace Ethanol.
01/06/2013
UK Resource
Association Reports on Cost
of Recyclate
Contamination
The Resource Association,
the United Kingdom's
professional advocacy
body for the reprocessing and
recycling industries, released
a report in December
documenting the cost of poor
quality, inconsistent
separation of recyclable goods
from the municipal waste stream
in the country's materials
recovery facilities (MRF).
01/05/2013
NYSERDA
Awards $15MM to Fund 3 Clean
Energy Proof of Concept
Centers
The New York State Energy
Research & Development
Authority (NYSERDA) has
announced an award totaling $15
million to establish three
Proof-of-Concept Centers as
"idea incubators" dedicated to
assisting scientists and
inventors develop and
commercialize high-tech, clean
energy inventions.
01/05/2013
DNV, Ginkgo
BioWorks Succeed in
Developing Microbial CO2 to
Electrofuels
Norwegian independent risk
management company Det Norske
Veritas (DNV) Research &
Innovation has announced that
its collaboration with Boston's
Ginkgo BioWorks has succeeded
in converting carbon dioxide to
liquid fuels using the energy
of microbial decomposition.
01/05/2013
JBI Raises $4MM to Continue
Execution of
Plastic2Oil®
Business
Plan
New York based JBI, Inc (JBI),
developer of the proprietary
Plastic2Oil® thermal waste
conversion process, has
announced a successful Series B
funding round valued at over $4
million, upon placement of over
1 million shares of convertible
preferred stock.
01/04/2013
US DOE Awards $10MM to Five
Advanced Biofuels and
Bioproducts
Projects
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced award of
more than $10 million to five
collaborative projects in
California, Washington,
Maryland, and Texas to further
the development of promising
biofuels and bio-based product
technologies.
01/04/2013
Alter NRG
Shareholders Approve $11MM
Private
Placement
Canadian plasma company Alter
NRG Corp. has announced that a
private placement of over 34
million shares to four
investors has been approved by
the majority of its
shareholders, securing
commitments for about $11
million.
01/03/2013
Imtech
Selected as a Technology
Partner for London's RE:FIT
Framework
Royal Imtech N.V., one of
Europe's technical service
providers, has announced that
the company has been selected
as a technology partner for the
RE:FIT initiative of the
Greater London Authority (GLA),
participation that brings a
wealth of systems installation
orders valued at over EUR 42
million.
01/03/2013
Germany Will
Assist Ukraine to Develop
Biofuels Pilot
Projects
In an announcement
released by Worldwide News
Ukraine, Germany will assist in
Ukrainian biofuels production
in 2013 by developing biofuels
pilot projects.
01/02/2013
U of
Virginia School of Medicine
Maps Out 3-D Enzyme that
Produces
Cellulose
Researchers at the University
of Virginia, School of Medicine
have published a paper in this
month's edition of the journal
"Nature" about a
three-dimensional (3-D) enzyme
that produces cellulose.
12/31/2012
Green Fuel
Nordic Secures Major Backing
for Biorefinery in
Finland
The biorefinery development
firm Green Fuel Nordic (GFN)
has announced that the Olvi
Foundation has committed to
invest in the company's initial
biorefinery project slated for
the Iisalmi Soinlahti region of
Finland.
12/31/2012
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