Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
17, April 29,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
A "Waste"
by any other name - whether
slop from the urban
dumpster, residue from
agricultural fields, or
brush and branches from a
timber slash pile - is
still a wasted resource if
buried or burnt. Yet each
of these sources has its
own cadre of oversight
agencies, and different
agencies have to make up
different Rules so their
fiefdoms remain discrete.
From the business end of
the waste conversion supply
chain, however, this makes
legal access to quantities
of feedstock for waste
conversion all the more
cumbersome. You want wood
chips? Talk to these guys.
You want to use straw?
That's somebody else. And
that "biogenic fraction"
you can separate out of
municipal solid waste?
Yeah, that opens an
entirely different can o'
worms.
Some of
this makes sense. Forests
absolutely MUST have litter
on the floor for the
critters and the regrowth.
If you scalp all the stems
of the rice plants down to
the dirt, you just end up
having to add some other
form of carbon back to the
soil to keep it fertile.
The same idea doesn't hold
for City Trash. Of the
three sectors, using ALL
the municipal waste as
feedstock for conversion to
heat, power, fuels,
chemicals, and other
commodities makes the most
sense. Unless you've always
owned landfills, of course,
and NEED that constant flow
of garbage to stay in
business. But hey, even the
landfill guys have figured
out that they can convert
waste to gold; that 'waste
stream' is starting to look
more and more like
feedstock instead of
fill.
Everyone
agrees by now that some
moderate amount of
agricultural residual and
forest litter can and
probably should be removed
from the fields and forests
because it does as much
damage to leave too much in
place as to take too much
away. Determining just how
much is OK is tough, but
doable. If you are trying
to convert ag and forest
residuals to fuel, that
careful guess of how much
can be removed over time
becomes the key to gaining
access, to figuring out the
scale of facility input,
and to certifying your
output as a Sustainable
Biofuel.
Back to
the Urban Waste: how do we
determine what is
Sustainable about
reprocessing trash? You'd
think that ANY amount of
clean conversion of
waste-sourced feedstock to
useful stuff should be
certifiable as
sustainable. Au
contraire: it has to GET
from where it is to where
you want to convert it, and
the further the transport
distance, the more
emissions are generated.
Then there's the question
of Highest and Best Use:
should we turn that manure
into biogas, or cure it and
bag it for the petunias? Is
it better to feed a
state-of-the-art Big Burner
and make bou coup
electricity, or bake it
into "syngas" and turn
that into goods? Now
remember, we are trying to
convert ALL that waste … in
Los Angeles, for example,
that amounts to a mere
40,000 tons of new garbage
to cope with each day,
every day. Our bet: we need
to use every kind of clean
Conversion Technology we
can get our hands on, but
build the Reprocessing
Infrastructure for that
conversion locally, as
close to where the trash is
generated as
possible.
Hey
Rube!
When companies apply to state
and federal agencies for grants
from Public Funds, those
proposals are Public. Of
course, that doesn't mean that
getting to see them is simple.
You generally have to figure
out who collects the paperwork
and specifically ASK to review
the documents. Take the time to
ask; it's your money, and you
also just might find Business
there.
The
Week's News
Maui County
Selects Anaergia for Mixed
Waste Conversion to Energy
Project
The County of Maui, Hawaii, has
announced the selection of
Anaergia Services, California
subsidiary of the Canadian firm
Anaergia Inc., to develop a
mixed waste anaerobic digestion
(AD) system for the Integrated
Waste Conversion and Energy
Project (IWCEP) at the Central
Maui Landfill in Puunene.
04/27/2013
GMP Cow
Power Program Approved by
Vermont Board for State-Wide
Use
In Vermont, the regional
utility Green Mountain Power
(GMP) has announced that its
Central Vermont Public Service
renewable energy program GMP
Cow Power has received approval
for state-wide availability
from the Vermont Public Service
Board (VPSB).
04/27/2013
Royal DSM
Selects Belgian Researcher
for 2013 Science &
Technology
Award
The Dutch company Royal DSM has
announced selection and
presentation of the company's
Science and Technology Award
Europe 2013 to Dr. Stijn van de
Vyver for his PhD research at
the Katholieke Universiteit in
Leuven, the Netherlands (KU
Leuven).
04/27/2013
Saint-Gobain
to Use Biogas for Glass
Melting at Innovation Center
Pilot
Plant
The international glass
container manufacturing company
Verallia Deutschland, a
subsidiary of Saint-Gobain
Oberland AG, has announced
plans to produce and utilize
biogas fuel in its Bad Wurzach
glass container production
facility in southern Germany.
04/26/2013
Cornell
Research Shows Biochar
Reduces N2O Emissions from
Ag Soils
by55%
Cornell University has reported
on just-published research into
the positive air quality impact
of incorporating biochar into
agricultural soils.
04/26/2013
Heliae
Introduces Volaris Waste
Carbon Dioxide + Sunlight
Algae
Platform
Arizona based Heliae
Development LLC has announced
introduction of its Volaris
microalgae production system
following five years of
development and commercial
validation.
04/25/2013
USDA Renews
Waste to Energy and GHG
Reduction Agreement with
Dairies
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has
announced that Secretary Thomas
Vilsack signed an agreement
with US dairy producers that
extends a 2009 Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) to
accelerate the adoption of
innovative waste-to-energy
projects and energy efficiency
improvements on U.S. dairy
farms.
04/25/2013
WMW Offers
Free Webinar on Waste
Gasification to Transport
Fuels
PennWell's Waste Management
World (WMW) has announced a
webinar entitled, "Accelerating
Biofuels: Waste Gasification to
Aviation and Transport Fuels in
the UK and US/Canada."
04/25/2013
Emerson
Process Chosen for
CHO-Power's Morcenx Waste
Conversion
Facility
The global firm Emerson Process
Management has announced that
it has been selected to provide
all process controls for the
Morcenx, France waste
conversion facility owned and
operated by CHO-Power, a
subsidiary of the EuroPlasma
Group.
04/24/2013
CBG Portland
Requests AQ Permit
Modification for Biogas
Pipeline
Injection
Oregon based anaerobic
digestion (AD) company CBG
Portland LLC (formerly Columbia
Biogas LLC) has applied to the
Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality (ODEQ)
for a modification to its air
quality permit (ACDP
26-9820-ST-01) to reflect a
change in the design of a food
waste digester proposed for
development in Portland.
04/24/2013
UC Davis
Issues Status Review of
California's Low Carbon Fuel
Standard
The Institute of Transportation
Studies (ITS), University of
California (UC), Davis has
announced the publication of
its Spring 2013 Status Review
of California's Low Carbon Fuel
Standard (LCFS), the second in
a series of status reports.
04/23/2013
DOE Awards
$18MM to Four New
Biorefinery Pilots for
Drop-In
Biofuels
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced awards
totaling almost $18 million to
four companies developing
advanced drop-in transport
biofuel refineries.
04/23/2013
Joule and
Harvest Power Recognized as
2013 Bloomberg New Energy
Pioneers
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
has announced its 2013 New
Energy Pioneers awards,
recognizing ten game-changing
companies in the fields of
clean energy technology and
innovation.
04/23/2013
Johnny
Rockets and DAR PRO
Solutions Convert Fry Grease
into
Biodiesel
The California based Johnny
Rockets restaurant chain has
announced a partnership with
DAR PRO Solutions to recycle
used fryer grease from all 29
of its corporate-owned
restaurants.
04/22/2013
Basque
Research Plans 10-Year
Program Review and
Overhaul
The web-based service Basque
Research has announced that its
program will undergo a
significant review and overhaul
after providing a decade of
outreach for scientific and
technologic research for the
Basque country.
04/22/2013
Royal
Borough Launches Recyclebank
Food Waste Rewards
Program
The Royal Borough of Windsor
and Maidenhead has announced
the launch of the United
Kingdom's (UK) first program
that rewards citizens and their
communities for separating and
recycling food waste from the
municipal garbage.
04/22/2013
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