Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
37, September 16,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Beautiful,
mind-boggling images of the
Cosmos come to my computer
screen every morning,
courtesy of the Space
Administration's "Astronomy
Picture of the Day".
Besides a constant reminder
of just how insignificant I
really am, there are other
lessons to be learned from
space; yes, even lessons in
cosmic waste management. A
recent exposé on
Black
Holes provides an
excellent example. It
seems many galaxies
contain these disposal
units, whirlpools that
science says suck up
almost everything around
them eventually,
converting the mass into
radiation. Black Holes
follow most folks'
concept of what happens
when the handle on the
household commode is
pushed and stuff goes
down the hole in the
bottom. It just goes
"away".
I don't
have this Cosmic Re-Use,
Recycling, Resource
Recovery and Ultimate
Disposal thing all worked
out yet, so bear with me.
Stars explode and implode;
galaxies share dust and
shoot energy at each other.
Molecules from one
monstrous aggregate are
bathed in pure energy, get
all excited, blow up,
become part of some other
something. This happens
over millions of years, but
the reprocessing is similar
to a Materials Recovery
Facility integrated with
Waste Conversion and Energy
from Waste facilities.
Loose discards come in, get
sorted out, become
something else, and the
dross gets turned into
energy. Way out there,
billions of light years
distant are super
active groups of
Black Holes that would
turn us all into raw
X-rays. Lucky for us,
our rather quiet Milky
Way (a mere 26,000 light
years away) seems
reluctant to gobble up
the gaseous winds from
young stars in the
region and sends that
syngas back out among
the stars to make new
cosmic stuff. As NASA
puts it, "hot gas is
hard to swallow." That's
the crux of Thermal
Conversion at its core:
the Universe is just a
Great Reprocessing
Station in the Sky
(sorry, but this
continues to get
worse).
Let's
bring this enormity down to
human scale. A broken rake
handle becomes a plant
stake, a plant stake
becomes compost, compost
becomes garden growth, and
what the deer don't get
first, becomes dinner.
Dinner, of course, feeds
our family while the scraps
feed my seething colony of
Wee Beasties (although most
of you probably don't
maintain Soldier Grubs for
recycling) or perhaps gets
turned into Biogas,
downtown. Biogas makes
power, and some of that
energy runs the factory
that makes the rake
handles. Cosmic, dude
…
Take home message: you, me,
that rake handle and
everything else around us
consists of useful
molecular stuff, propelled
around the Circular Economy
by its own packet of
energy. As long as each
bundle has enough
energy, it avoids the
drain. That will happen
anyway, each in its own
time as the energy finally
runs down; we don't need to
speed that process. In
fact, we're all better off
if we work to keep stuff
cycling, if we maintain and
even increase the energy
level around us. Do your
part: Avoid the
Drain.
Hey
Rube!
Two events occur in Sacramento
this week, and if you are in
the area, you should join the
fray. First, CalRecycle and the
Air Board are at it again on
Tuesday afternoon, holding
another workshop
to help puzzle out how to
reduce the greenhouse gas
impacts of the Waste
Management Sector. Second:
The California Bioresources
Alliance hosts its 8th Annual
Symposium: "A Call to
Action" on Wednesday and
Thursday.
If you happen to be in the San
Diego area instead, drop in on
the Waste
Conversion Technology
Conference that started
yesterday and runs through
tomorrow. Y'all come now, ye
hear?
This Week's Top Story
Bently
Biofuels Acquires Bay Area
Waste Oil and Grease
Collection
Company
Headquartered in Minden,
Nevada, biodiesel producer
Bently Biofuels Company has
announced that late last month,
it completed acquisition of Got
Grease?, a large-scale San
Francisco Bay area grease trap
pumping and waste oil
collection service.
09/10/2013
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.
LLNL and
Chemergy Plan Biosolids to
Hydrogen Demo at Delta
Diablo
WWTP
Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) has announced
its readiness to oversee
demonstration trials of a
process for conversion of
biosolids to hydrogen at the
Delta Diablo Sanitation
District (DDSD) wastewater
treatment plant (WWTP).
09/13/2013
USDA Expands
Promotion of Rural Wood to
Energy Project
Development
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) announced a
new partnership agreement with
four non-profit associations,
and the award of five grants
totaling $1.1 million to
associations and state agencies
supporting wood energy projects
and expanding the use of forest
health program generated
biomass.
09/13/2013
USFS Webinar
Announces Transfer of 4FRI
Phase I Stewardship
Contract
The U.S. Forest Service hosted
a web conference today to
announce the decision to
transfer the Phase 1
stewardship contract for the
Four Forest Restoration
Initiative (4FRI).
09/13/2013
Furuya Opens
New Tetronics Plasma Plant
to Recover Precious
Metals
United Kingdom (UK) based
Tetronics International has
announced that the plasma
pyrometallurgical facility it
supplied to Furuya Metal
Co., Inc. in Tsuchiura, Japan
has been officially opened.
09/11/2013
Oregon DEQ
Is Forming Materials
Management
Workgroup
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) is
in the process of forming a
Materials Management Workgroup
to implement the
Materials Management in
Oregon: 2050 Vision and
Framework for Action.
09/11/2013
WELTEC
BIOPOWER and Domaix Develop
Four Biogas Plants in
France
Germany based WELTEC BIOPOWER
has announced development of
four agricultural anaerobic
digestion (AD) combined heat
and power (CHP) plants for
production of biogas in France
with partner Domaix Energie,
based in Alsace.
09/11/2013
Danish
Public/Private Partnership
Plans Sulfur-Free Marine
Fuel
Biorefinery
The Port of Frederikshavn,
Steeper Energy and Aalborg
University have announced a
public/private partnership to
establish a biorefinery to
produce up to 900,000 tons of
sulfur-free marine fuel to
serve over 100,000 vessels
passing through the Danish port
annually.
09/11/2013
Midori
Renewables Launches Solid
Catalyst that Converts
Biomass to
Sugar
Massachusetts based Flagship
VentureLabs has announced that
its company Midori Renewables,
Inc is globally deploying its
technology platform that
centers on a solid catalyst
with the capacity to dissociate
biomass into its constituent
sugars.
09/10/2013
Ribbon
Cutting for Ameresco's
Johnson Canyon Landfill Gas
to Energy
Plant
Massachusetts based Ameresco
has announced that it will join
local officials for a
ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark
completion of construction of a
1.4 megawatt electric (MWe)
landfill gas-to-energy
installation at the Johnson
Canyon Landfill in Gonzales,
California.
09/10/2013
CalRecycle
and CARB Host Workshop to
Discuss Revised AB 32
Scoping
Plan
The California Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) and the
California Air Resources Board
(CARB) will co-host another AB
32 Draft Scoping Plan workshop
on September 17, 2013 to
discuss revisions to the Waste
Management Sector topical
documents.
09/09/2013
EDF
Renewable Energy Acquires
Heartland Biogas Project in
Colorado
San Diego based EDF Renewable
Energy has announced that the
company has closed on an
agreement to acquire Heartland
Renewable Energy LLC and its
Heartland Biogas Project
located in Weld County near
LaSalle, Colorado.
09/09/2013
SoCalGas
Establishes $1MM Clean Tech
Innovation Fund with
LACI
The Southern California Gas
Company (SoCalGas) and the
nonprofit business development
agency Los Angeles Cleantech
Incubator (LACI) have announced
the launch of a collaborative
Innovation Fund.
09/09/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
10/09/2013: Renewable
Electrical Power Proposals
to City of Palo
Alto
The City of Palo Alto,
California has released a
Request for Proposal for
Utility Commodities, RFP151223
- Renewable Electric Power -
Fall 2013.
09/11/2013
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