Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
24, June 17,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
The thing about stuff
is you either have way too
much, or not nearly enough.
If you need a lot of stuff,
there is never enough. And
… yeah, if there's enough
to be a problem, you can't
get rid of it for anything.
Biomass is like
that.
Biomass:
recently dead organic
stuff. If you want to get
enough to really make any
money doing something with
it, it is almost certain to
cost you more to gather and
transport that much biomass
stuff than you can sell it
for. Biomass takes up more
room than it's worth; you
seldom can load enough into
a truck to cover the cost
of the diesel.
For rural
communities deep in the
woods, this is a real
problem. Once, a small town
could cut that wood to
lumber and ship
that
out. Once, there were small
community sawmills
scattered along the entire
length of the Sierra Nevada
and Coastal mountain ranges
in California, just like
there were in almost every
other forest in North
America. Now? Not so much,
and for complex and
constantly changing
reasons. It has been
over three decades
since the hey-day of the
rural saw mill economy
and its wigwam burners
(or teepee or beehive
burners), and in that time
the amount of biomass has
continued to accumulate.
The national economy
remains in the dumps; brush
and thickets of saplings
increase the risk around
forest-land homes and
businesses. Climate Change
isn't helping, and every
year more super-fires rage.
But for all the risks, good
folks will continue to make
the woods their home and
excess biomass will
continue to be a
challenge.
One less
obvious reason for this, at
least to people who
don't
live in the woods, is that
it is particularly
difficult to get any three
terribly independent forest
dwellers to agree to one
single path of action for
"biomass management." Add
to that the constant turf
wars classically present
between rural communities
and the state and federal
authorities who govern
surrounding lands … not an
easily managed situation.
Yet after decades of
bickering, the concept of
Community Stewardship is
winning out and real change
is beginning to happen
within our forested
communities.
A more
obvious reason has been the
lack of clean and cost
effective options for
converting all that excess
and dangerous accumulation
of fire-prone stuff into
anything of value, even
enough value to pay for the
basic removal. This too is
changing, as new tools and
methods emerge globally
that can settle comfortably
into the quiet rural,
forested community
structure. This week we've
covered a Wood Stove
Challenge that is ferreting
out some very nifty designs
to turn a little wood into
a lot of residential or
small-business heat and
power. Small scale
conversion of woody biomass
also includes
high-efficiency community
scale heat and power
generation. Also important:
relatively small amounts of
biomass stuff can be
converted to fermentable
sugars that you can make
into plastics, fertilizer,
vehicle fuel, and a whole
range of chemicals. The
real trick is to find a way
to up the value of that
biomass stuff while
reducing the bulk, and all
the above options manage
that, in one way or
another. Options! We have
Options!
Hey
Rube!
We also have a lot of
"homework" to do, tracking down
just what is available, who has
it, how much it costs and
whether there is anyone Out
There that can help pay for
getting these things
kick-started. Teru Talk is
focused on doing the homework;
do your part, and Read the
News.
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 (It bounces, so look
around). 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.
CARB,
CalRecycle Host AB 32
Scoping Plan Workshop on
Waste
Management
The California Air Resources
Board (CARB) and California's
Department of Resources
Recycling and Recovery
(CalRecycle) have posted a
Revised Agenda for a public
workshop to be held in
Sacramento at the Cal/EPA
Headquarters on Tuesday, June
18, 2013 from 1:00pm to 4:30pm.
06/15/2013
JBI Begins
Shake-Down Testing on Third
Plastic2Oil Processor
Assembly
New York based JBI, Inc. has
announced completion of
assembly on the company's third
pyrolytic retort for conversion
of non-recyclable waste plastic
into alternative fuel.
06/14/2013
CalETC's New
Alternative Fuels Report
Praises California's
LCFS
The non-profit California
Electric Transportation
Coalition (CalETC) has
announced release of a new
report, California’s Low Carbon
Fuel Standard: Compliance
Outlook for 2020, exploring the
rapid development of
alternative fuels and offers
high praise for the states' Low
Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) as
a global market driver.
06/14/2013
PHG Energy
Integrates Wood Gasification
with GE's Clean Cycle
Generator
Tennessee based PHG Energy
(PHGE) has announced success in
a collaborative project with GE
to integrate its wood
gasification system with GE's
"Clean Cycle" heat-to-power
Rankine Cycle generator.
06/14/2013
Energy
Answers' Puerto Rico Waste
to Energy Project Receives
EPA Air
Permit
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has announced its
final approval of a Prevention
of Significant Deterioration
(PSD) air permit for a new 77
megawatt solid waste facility
owned by Energy Answers
Arecibo, LLC’s, at the former
site of Global Fibers Paper
Mill in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
06/13/2013
Cyclone
Power and Ohio State
Kick-Off Heat-Driven Engine
Testing
Program
Cyclone Power Technologies Inc
of Pompano Beach, Florida has
announced the official start of
a development and testing
program with Ohio State
University's Center for
Automotive Research (OSU CAR).
06/13/2013
ENER-G
Selected for Landfill Gas to
Energy Project in Celaya,
Mexico
The United Kingdom-based green
power developer ENER-G has been
selected by the Mexican
municipality of Celaya to build
and operate a landfill gas
(LFG) management project,
according to the Energy
Services and Technology
Association (ESTA).
06/12/2013
Green
Investment Bank Releases
Market Report on Anaerobic
Digestion
United Kingdom based Green
Investment Bank (GIB) has
announced the release its
Anaerobic Digestion Market
Report 2013, detailing the
current status of the anaerobic
digestion (AD) industry in the
United Kingdom.
06/12/2013
USDA
Approves $98.6MM in Advanced
Biofuels Production Support
Payments
US Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack
has announced that up to $98.6
million in payments supporting
advanced biofuels production
have been approved.
06/12/2013
ESA Releases
Practical Guide to a
Circular Economy by
Reprocessing
Waste
The United Kingdom (UK) based
Environmental Services
Association (ESA) has released
a report entitled Going for
Growth: A Practical Route to a
Circular Economy, available for
download without charge.
06/11/2013
Renmatix,
UPM Sign JDA for Conversion
of Lignocellulosic Biomass
to Sugars
Pennsylvania-based Renmatix has
entered into a non-exclusive
joint development agreement
(JDA) with the Swedish firm
UPM.
06/11/2013
Penn State's
NEWBio Webinar Will Explore
Future of Residential Wood
Heating
Pennsylvania State University's
NEWBio program hosts the free
monthly "Northeast Bioenergy
Webinar Series", and has
announced the next presentation
on June 11, 2013: The Future of
Residential Wood Heating.
06/10/2013
Stafford
County Approves Lease for
EEP's $73MM MSW Pyrolysis
Project
The Board of Supervisors of
Stafford County, Virginia last
week approved the lease of 11
acres of property controlled
jointly by the City and County
of Fredericksburg at the
Rappahannock Regional Landfill
to the local firm Energy
Extraction Partners (EEP).
06/10/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
07/12/2013: 2nd Call for
Grant Applications to DECC
for Energy
Projects
The United Kingdom Department
of Energy & Climate Change
(DECC) has announced the
second-round opening of a grant
program soliciting innovative
ideas in energy efficiency,
energy storage, and low carbon
energy generation.
06/13/2013
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