Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
20, May 20,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
There's a
global buzz about
increasing the
sustainability of
our business practices. You
can see this in our
governments spending bucks
to push the trend forward.
But what do "sustainability
incentives" have to do with
waste conversion, and what
is this
"sustainable" thing of
which we speak? A common
definition of
Sustainability says if you
can keep up whatever it is
that you are doing while
reducing your impact on the
environment, we'll still
have resources a few
generations in the future
when the New Kids try to do
the same thing. Shoot for
leaving a livable world at
least seven
generations
ahead.
If you do
good with your Business,
you can stay within the
bounds Society has set up
that are represented in
your permits and
certifications. You can
afford to get a little
sloppy sometimes, even have
a terrible year and still
not do so much damage that
you fall outside of your
permitted space. That's the
"status quo" - continuing
to do just enough to keep
in business - and for many,
that's plenty. Can you do
better? Probably, but then
you need to know how
to "do better". That
knowledge is usually
difficult to come by and
the tools are expensive to
put into
practice.
Let's say
you grow and harvest
tomatoes. You stay inside
your county, state, and
federal rules and
guidelines, and you manage
to sell enough marketable
tomatoes to stay in
Business. Now, increasing
the "sustainability" of
agriculture can cover a
huge number of changes:
less pesticides, more
efficient water usage, and
renewably fuelled
fork-lifts. All good ideas,
all cost money. Isn't there
ANYTHING that you can do to
improve the
sustainability of
growing tomatoes and
actually Makes you
money?
OK, so
what happens to all those
not-quite-marketable
tomatoes? Off to the local
dump? Plowed back into the
field? Better, maybe, if
you at least sell them to
the neighboring dairy for
cattle-feed, perhaps in
exchange for manure for
your tomatoes. Better still
if you combine a good
portion of those squished
and rotting 'maters with
your neighbor's cow-poop
and milky wastewater in a
big anaerobic digester (AD)
unit. You can now make
electricity for both of
your operation's heat and
power needs, clean up some
of the biogas for the
vehicles, and still end up
with good mulch for
amending the field. It's
waste conversion! NOW
you’ve got an integrated
process that certainly is
better for the Good Earth.
But … you know how to grow
tomatoes and your neighbor
knows dairy cows; neither
of you know which end of a
Digester eats the cabbage.
You just know this will
cost a bundle even to
figure it out, and a whole
lot more to make it
happen.
Here's
where Society needs to step
up with the Incentives to
improve the Sustainability
of our communal efforts.
Maybe split the cost to
hire bright people to
design, build, and operate
that AD tool integrated
with your tomato growing
and milk producing Business
efforts. And guess what?
These are Exactly the sort
of grants we're seeing
developed and awarded all
over the planet.
"Sustainability
Incentives", by whatever
name, are put in place to
nudge Good Business toward
Best Management Practices,
and clean conversion of
Waste is surging to the
fore-front of ways to make
that happen.
Hey
Rube!
Look over all your own Business
Practices; hunt down the stuff
you pay to throw away. See who
else is doing something similar
in your community. Aim high but
ask for help, because improving
the sustainability of your own
actions benefits your
community, your state and your
planet.
The
Week's News
NOTE:
A recent problem has developed
with Internet Explorer 9's
ability to follow a link
directly to its location on a
page, so look around. It will
be there. If you are using
other web browsers, there
doesn't seem to be a problem.
We are hoping this will clear
up in future IE9 updates.
Sometimes the magic
works.
Enerkem
Secures $1.1MM Grant for
Waste Conversion to Drop-In
BioFuels
Montreal based Enerkem Inc. has
announced new research
collaboration with the
Government of Canada to further
develop conversion of waste to
advanced fuels.
05/17/2013
Colorado
Governor Signs HB 13-1001
Supporting Clean
Technologies
The Colorado Cleantech Industry
Association (CCIA) has
announced that Governor John
Hickenlooper signed House Bill
13–1001, the Advanced
Industries Acceleration Act.
05/17/2013
Oregon BEST
Funds Microbial Fuel Cell
for Brewery Wastewater to
Energy
The Oregon Built Environment
& Sustainable Technologies
Center (Oregon BEST) has
announced a $150,000
commercialization grant for
tests of a new microbial fuel
cell to convert brewery
wastewater to energy.
05/16/2013
Kroger
Unveils Food Waste to Clean
Energy AD System in Los
Angeles
Massachusetts based FEED
Resource Recovery Inc. has
announced start of operations
at its 55,000 ton per year
anaerobic digestion (AD) system
installation at The Kroger
Company's Los Angeles,
California grocery supply
distribution center.
05/16/2013
BioFuelNet
Canada Joins Airbus, Air
Canada for Aviation Biofuels
Solutions
BioFuelNet Canada has announced
entering into a cooperative
agreement with Air Canada and
Airbus to identify the
promising biofuels for
aviation.
05/15/2013
DOE Launches
H2USA Program to Deploy
Advanced Hydrogen
Infrastructure
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced the launch
of a new program encouraging
public/private partnerships to
develop and deploy an advanced
hydrogen infrastructure.
05/15/2013
Canadian
Government Partners for
Algae to Biofuels using
Industrial
CO2
The Government of Canada has
announced a joint 3 year
project to use algae for
sequestering and recycling
industrial carbon emissions
from oil sands development and
in other industrial facilities.
05/15/2013
Spanish
Research Institute Improves
CO2 to Methanol
Catalysis
The Spanish Institute for
Chemical Research for Catalonia
(ICIQ) has released a
"technology available" notice
via the international Innoget
service (free registration
required), entitled "Carbon
dioxide recycling: high
yielding process for the
preparation of methanol and DME
from carbon dioxide" (Tech
Offer ID: O-1176).
05/14/2013
Resolute
Forest Products Opens Green
Power Island at Ontario
Paper
Mill
Canada based Resolute Forest
Products (RFP) has announced
the inauguration of a renewable
energy complex at its Thunder
Bay, Ontario pulp and paper
mill. The power island includes
a refurbished and upgraded wood
waste boiler and a new
65-megawatt condensing turbine.
05/14/2013
JBEI
Advances Use of Ionic
Liquids for Enzyme-free
Biomass
Pretreatment
The Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory has announced that
researchers at its Joint
BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have
developed a new technique for
pre-treating low-value
cellulosic biomass prior to
full conversion for production
of biofuels and bio-sourced
chemicals using ionic liquids
without reliance on enzymatic
hydrolysis.
05/14/2013
US DOE Funds
Eight Small Business
Biomass-Focused Energy
Technologies
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy office has
announced awards totaling over
$16 million for innovative
small businesses focused on
energy technologies.
05/13/2013
Coahuila
Landfill Gas to Energy is
1st Biogas Project Financed
by
NADBank
The North American Development
Bank (NADBank) has announced
that six new environmental
infrastructure projects have
been selected for financing and
certification, totaling $44.57
million in grants and loans.
05/13/2013
WELTEC
BIOPOWER Will Construct 1.8
MW Biomethane Plant in
Finland
The Vechta, Germany based
company WELTEC BIOPOWER GmbH
has announced development of a
modular anaerobic digestion
facility with a nameplate
capacity of 1.8 megawatts (MWe)
of renewable electricity, but
designed to produce refined
biomethane for transport.
05/13/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
06/03/2013: Response to IBI
Survey on Global Biochar
Projects
The International Biochar
Initiative (IBI) is seeking
detailed information regarding
current trends in worldwide
biochar deployment, and has
posted a Biochar Projects
Survey.
05/13/2013
Due
06/11/2013: Small Business
Innovative Research Phase I
Proposals to
NSF
Due
06/13/2013: Small Business
Technology Transfer Phase I
Proposals to
NSF
The National Science Foundation
(NSF) has opened the
application processes for
Fiscal Year 2014's Small
Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) and Small Business
Technology Transfer (STTR)
grant programs.
05/15/2013
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