Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
36, September 9,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
This
month's Trash Word is
Plastic. Plastic is
over, under, around, and
through us; plastic is part
of just about everything we
do. Plastic is great,
plastic is good, plastic is
well, just OK, and
certainly plastic can be
very ugly. Waste plastic
has escaped into the world
at large, mostly because it
is lightweight and tends to
blow and float away. As
plastic fragments get
smaller and smaller, they
contaminate the food chain,
so by now there are bound
to be small amounts of
plastic in all of us (some
more than others, it
seems). We are not without
recourse; with the right
tools, we can turn even Bad
Plastic into something good
or at least something not
nearly so
bad.
The first
plastics were made around
1860 from the part of wood
called cellulose, processed
so that when the stuff was
heated, it could be molded
and when it cooled, it
retained that shape. Soon,
transparent "celluloid"
strips with tiny pictures
made movies possible, and a
whole new industry was
born. Bio-Plastics came on
the scene first, and
Bio-Plastics are once again
a Big Thing, but for the
past hundred-plus years,
almost all plastics have
been made from
petroleum.
The
floaty, blowy nature of
thin-film Plastic causes a
lot of litter and that is
bad enough, but rogue
plastic is especially
serious in our oceans. Two
weeks ago, we learned the
word Gyre, meaning a thing
that whirls or spins, as in
gyrate. There are
five big gyres where ocean
currents rotate on
seasonally shifting
centers. Stuff that floats
around long enough in the
ocean eventually finds its
way into one of these
gyres. Waste plastic
bottles, bags, and odd
chunks of styrofoam circle
in the gyres. Below the
floating trash is a slush
of smaller and smaller
plastic fragments. Fish in
the gyres don't even have
to eat the plastic bits;
they breathe plastic
with every flex of their
gills. Last year, the North
Atlantic Gyre's debris
field was estimated to be
about a hundred kilometers
across, containing over
200,000 bits of floating
crud per square kilometer.
Once made, plastic degrades
very, very slowly, so
plastics are here to
stay.
Just what is
Plastic? Plastics are long
chains of molecules called
polymers. With processing,
plastics can be broken into
useful substances. Just as
fermentation cuts up sugar
molecule chains to make
ethanol, plastic conversion
methods break up the
polymer structure into
alcohol-like short-chain
compounds, many of which
are basic fuels and
lubricants. Smart folks are
working to turn waste
plastic into fuels and
chemicals, fine tuning this
messy business of melting
and dissolving plastic, and
commercializing the
resulting process. It looks
like the heavy lifting of
the early research has now
been completed. Every week,
we see new methods to
effectively mine the
plastic mess we continue to
make, paying for the
clean-up at least in part
by the value of the
resources recovered. Keep
watching this space.
Whether it can be called
"renewable" or not, Plastic
to Fuel is a Big
Thing.
Hey
Rube!
If you are
involved in any way with
managing "materials", grit your
teeth and dig into the National
Science Foundation's newly
opened solicitations. The
grants are available for almost
anything you might want to
do with just about any
kind of material. This support
being offered for Materials
Management and Processing is
much needed right now,
especially since turning
waste-sourced raw materials
back into goods can pose new
and difficult challenges. The
funds are there, if you can
make it through their rigorous
paper
chase.
The
Week's Extra Reading
Don't miss
the Green Clean Guide's
September 4th interview with
Teru.
This Week's Top Story
Aemetis
Secures EPA Advanced Biofuel
RIN Certification for Keyes
Plant
California based Aemetis, Inc.
has announced that the US
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has granted approval for
production of ethanol from
sorghum and biogas with Aemetis
Keyes plant’s existing Combined
Heat & Power (CHP) system.
09/04/2013
The
Week's News
NOTE:
If you are using IE10 and our
website isn't loading as
smoothly as you would like or
the page jumps when you click
on a link to go to a certain
news item, just change to
"compatibility view" and all
will be
fine.
New Tool to
Evaluate BC Forest Wood
Waste for Community
Heating
Waste wood from logging and
forest fire abatement could
replace 30 to 50 per cent of
the fossil fuel used in British
Columbia (BC), according to a
new white paper released by the
Pacific Institute for Climate
Solutions (PICS).
09/06/2013
Recycling,
Energy from Waste Facility
in Walsall Receives Planning
Approval
Walsall Council in the United
Kingdom has granted planning
permission to BH EnergyGap for
a Resource Recovery and
Renewable Energy Facility that
will use gasification to
process 300,000 tonnes of waste
per year, and will produce up
to 19 megawatts of electricity.
09/06/2013
Algae
Organizations from US and
Japan Announce International
Cooperation
The Algae Biomass Organization
(ABO), the US based trade
association for the algae
industry, and the Algae
Industry Incubation Consortium,
Japan (AIIC), a group working
to commercialize algae biofuels
in Japan, have announced a
cooperative effort to share
algae industry best practices
and expertise.
09/06/2013
DOD
Announces Winners in 3rd
Annual Defense Energy
Technology
Challenge
The US Department of Defense
(DOD) has announced 15 winners
in the 3rd Annual Defense
Energy Technology Challenge
(DETC), presented as part of
the annual Asia Pacific Clean
Energy Summit scheduled for
September 9-11, 2013 in Hawaii.
09/05/2013
Green Heat's
Wood Stove Challenge
Receives $50K Support from
NYSERDA
The Alliance for Green Heat has
been awarded $50,000 in
continuing support of its Wood
Stove Design Challenge from the
New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
(NYSERDA).
09/04/2013
Recycled
Energy Development Assumes
Control of Eastman Park
Utilities
Focusing on the energy
efficiencies to be gained by
turning waste heat into
additional power, the Illinois
based company Recycled Energy
Development (RED) has finalized
its agreement with the Eastman
Kodak Company to transition the
Eastman Business Park (EBP)
utility infrastructure to RED.
09/04/2013
Clariant's
SunLiquid Demo Plant
Receives Sustainable Biofuel
Certification
Switzerland based Clariant
International Ltd has announced
that its demonstration facility
in Straubing, Germany has
received the International
Sustainability & Carbon
Certification (ISCC) for
Sunliquid cellulosic biofuel
production.
09/03/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
10/01/2013: Grant
Applications for Materials
and Manufacturing to
NSF
The National Science Foundation
(NSF) current list of Active
Funding Opportunities includes
a long list of solicitations
focused on advancing the
science of materials and
manufacturing.
09/04/2013
Due
10/04/2013: Grant
Applications to Idaho DEQ
for Sustainable Materials
Mgt
The Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) is
accepting applications for up
to $20,000 per grant to support
sustainable materials
management projects that focus
on ways to reduce the amount of
resources used, as well as the
environmental impacts of
resource use, over a product’s
life cycle.
09/03/2013
Due
10/27/2013: Stakeholder
Comments to India's MoEF on
Draft MSW
Rule
The India Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF)
has announced the release of a
comprehensive Draft Municipal
Solid Waste (Management and
Handling) Rule, 2013 and is
seeking public comment.
09/03/2013
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