Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
21, May 28,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
European
companies are coming into
America and Canada to set
up wood pellet plants just
to ship those pellets back
to Europe. Why? Simple:
they want to swap out their
coal plants for biomass
plants, and don't want to
strip their forests
bare. Do we really have
that much extra wood lying
around? Apparently so, if
you have enough money to
buy the land, secure
long-term supply contracts
for the biomass feedstock,
build and operate the
plants (yes, that's
plural), rebuild an eastern
seaboard deep-water port
and own all the ships that
it takes to ship tons of
pellet fuel back overseas.
Not a small-change venture,
but hey, they want to be
able to keep breathing
their
air.
In the
Wild West, some with very
different ideas about
Resource Use are working
together, determining the
"what and where" of excess
biomass. Two weeks ago, we
reported on Placer County,
California's approval of a
2 megawatt "community
scale" biomass plant, based
on an agreement to use only
the "forest trash" of pine
needles and fire reduction
cleanup and heeding the
caution not to practice
"forest mining" for the
feedstock. The conclusion:
use the Waste, not the
Virgin Materials. That Rule
carries over no matter the
scale. This week, we
started implementation of
the Four Forests
Restoration Initiative
(4FRI) in Arizona's
expansive national forests,
on essentially the same
principle of "just the
excess biomass,
please."
If it is
OK to cleanly convert a
Little Waste to heat,
power, and other goodies,
logic says cleanly
converting a Whole Lot of
Waste to replace virgin
material for feedstock is
not such a bad idea either.
We finally have all sorts
of conversion technologies
to match up with that grand
diversity of crud we
constantly throw away. We
can cleanly turn sewage
sludge and cow poop, food
waste and ag residue, used
tires and those laminated
aluminum/plastic baggies,
and even the toxic-laden
emissions from our
factories into heat and
power, chemicals, and
commodities. In fact, we
need So Much New Stuff.
Where in the world can we
get that much waste,
that much Biomass?
Right under our communal
noses.
Hey
Rube!
Agencies globally are staying
quite busy developing and
implementing programs to define
just how their communities can
go about lowering the damage we
do to this planet. A worthy
goal: but that ol' Detail Devil
deserves our close and constant
attention. As an example: at
this week's Cal Air Resources
Board's Low Carbon Fuel
Standard workshop on options
for incentives to "curtail
program costs", it was no big
surprise that most of the
audience represented Big Oil,
come to voice corporate opinion
that any program or process
that threatens to replace Crude
is, well, almost Un-American.
Bad, that is, until Big Oil
owns these new
"alternative fuel" tools. Sit
down, if you agree. If not,
you'd best stand up and say
something.
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. 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.
Benefuel
Teams with Flint Hills
Resources for US Biorefinery
Development
Chicago based Benefuel Inc. has
announced entering into an
agreement for biorefinery
development in the United
States with Kansas based Flint
Hills Resources LLC (FHR), a
subsidiary of Koch Industries,
Inc and a shareholder in
Benefuel.
05/27/2013
US DOE
Awards Technical Assistance
to Tribes for Bioenergy
Projects
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced selection
of five Native American tribal
institutions for receipt of
technical assistance through
the department's Strategic
Technical Assistance Response
Team (START) Program for
renewable energy project
development and installation.
05/27/2013
Oregon DEQ
Plastics Recovery Assessment
Project Includes
Pyrolysis
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) has
begun a Plastics Recovery
Assessment Project, partnering
with METRO, the elected
regional government for the
Portland metropolitan area.
05/25/2013
New Paper on
Viable Production of Diesel
from Non-Recyclable Waste
Plastics
A detailed paper by John
Bordynuik, CTO of JBI, Inc.
addressing the company's patent
pending Plastic2Oil
process is now available in the
newly released Proceedings of
the 21st Annual North American
Waste-to-Energy Conference
(NAWTEC) last month in Fort
Meyer, Florida.
05/25/2013
Enval Wins
at "Finance for the Future"
for Plastic Laminate
Recovery
Based in Cambridge, Enval Ltd.
has announced its selection as
winner in the "Inspiring New
Ideas" award category, in the
United Kingdom's (UK) Financing
for the Future competition.
05/25/2013
California
ARB and OEHHA Submit Final
Biomethane Report to
CPUC
The California Air Resources
Board (ARB) and the Office of
Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment (OEHHA) have
announced completion of the
co-authored staff report,
"Recommendations to the
California Public Utilities
Commission Regarding Health
Protective Standards for the
Injection of Biogas into the
Common Carrier Pipeline."
05/22/2013
EuropaBio
Launches Video Series on
BioTech Solutions for EU
BioEconomy
The European Association of
Bioindustries (EuropaBio) has
announced the launch a
collection of short films
(videos) presenting Stories
from the Biobased Economy, "in
response to calls for tangible
examples where biobased
industries are working together
to build new value chains
across Europe.
05/21/2013
Agrivert
Opens Wallingford AD Plant
to Covert Food Waste to
Energy
Based in Oxfordshire, United
Kingdom, Agrivert Ltd. has
announced the official opening
of its £10 million, 45,000
tonne per year Wallingford
anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility.
05/21/2013
Work to
Begin Under 1st Four Forest
Restoration Initiative
Contract
The US Forest Service has
announced that work under the
first stewardship contract
issued through the Four Forest
Restoration Initiative (4FRI)
will begin in early June.
05/20/2013
Green Energy
Renewable Solutions and
Cirque Energy II, LLC
Merge
Massachusetts based Green
Energy Renewable Solutions Inc.
(GESI) has announced a merger
with Michigan based Cirque
Energy II, LLC.
05/20/2013
The St. Joe
Company and Green Circle Bio
Energy Sign Wood Pellet
LOI
Florida based The St. Joe
Company has announced signing a
Letter of Intent (LOI) with
Green Circle Bio Energy, Inc.
to encourage economic
development opportunities for
Florida’s Northwest region and
to work toward making the Port
of Port St. Joe operational.
05/20/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
06/14/2013: Comments to CEC
on Challenges to Biomethane
Procurement
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has released
Notice of a staff workshop to
assess the challenges that
limit biomethane procurement in
California and the potential
solutions, and to solicit
public input.
05/21/2013
Due
06/14/2013: Comments to
California ARB on LCFS
Incentive
Alternatives
The California Air Resources
Board (ARB) has proposed
amendments to provide cost
containment provisions within
the Low Carbon Fuel Standard
(LCFS) regulation, and seeks
stakeholder input.
05/25/2013
Due
06/24/2013: Proposals to
Minnesota Commerce Dept for
CHP
Study
The Minnesota Department of
Commerce, Division of Energy
Resources, has published notice
of a Request for Proposals
under the state's Conservation
Applied Research and
Development Grant Program (CARD
Grant RFP FY2013-02).
05/22/2013
Due
07/18/2013: Qualifications
for City of Surrey Waste to
Biofuel
Facility
The City of Surrey, British
Colombia, Canada, has announced
the release of a Request for
Qualifications (RFQ) for
development of an 80,000 metric
tonne per year organic waste
and residual processing
facility for production of
advanced biofuels.
05/27/2013
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