Teru Talk - 2013 Newsletter V-III-38

Ahem …. (queue fireworks and trumpet fanfare): Teru Talk is 3 Years Old!

It's Teru Talk's third birthday! Yep, in the audacious belief that folks are as curious about Waste Conversion as us, three years ago this month we built and launched this web service. We named it after one of the things we Teru-ly do best: Talk. We began in earnest, looking around the Globe for the people, technologies, and projects that take just about any sort of Waste and turn it into some sort of Goods. We've been posting about 15 newsy items a week for well over 150 weeks (whew).

Why? We've been trying to answer two common, basic questions: Isn't there anything useful that I can turn this particular kind of waste crud into? And … What sort of industrial magic has been developed to convert this waste liability into a resource asset?

We've been tracking the entire "value chain" from feedstock to end product, sussing out and reporting on all forms of Waste Conversion like microbial, thermal, and chemical processes. We've addressed reforming and refining that has to happen to make what we recover into Goods useful and valuable to the Market. We post on the smart folks in the institutions that figure out the underlying ideas, the companies young and old that risk so much, trying to get a process to Commercial status, the financial wizards that have the bucks and the brains to back 'em up. We rip into on the Agencies at all levels that put the brackets, good or bad, on "Clean, compared to what?" We give a shout out to the associations and foundations that act as Societal Monitors, urging us to try a bit harder to make this a clean, efficient, livable world.

When you constantly review as much Incoming Stuff as we do, you recognize trends in the global progress of Waste Conversion. Teru Talk is here to tell you, this business is working. Everywhere we turn we see examples of Resource Sanity, we hear about the Circular Economy and how we need to see discards as resources, how we all should Claim our own Waste. People that still have oodles of money are also looking and listening, and Cash is starting to flow. This financial picture isn't as flush as in the first few years following Y2K; instead there is a more cautious and sensible approach to investment. But investments are indeed being made in waste conversion technology development and infrastructure deployment. Folks are even willing to openly use the Buzz Words in polite conversation, no longer relegating terms like Biofuel and Bioproducts, Waste-sourced Energy and such to the back rooms and alleyways.

As we enter this first week of Fall 2013, we may not be There yet, but we're on our way. And … Teru Talk is happy to be part of the Party.

Hey Rube!

Everybody agrees that Biomass is a renewable resource, that Bio-power equals Renewable Energy, and that working small and local makes a lot of sense. Watch closely now out here in California, as that idea is put to the test: Senate Bill 1122 set aside three big Buckets to be filled by our investor-owned utilities with small-scale bioenergy power purchase agreements. Soon, the Public Utilities Commission will kick off a formal Rulemaking to implement the bill. We'll be paying close attention and making our thoughts known; we hope you will too.

This Week's Top Story

Airgas, Inc has announced that its subsidiary, Airgas Carbonic, has signed a long-term agreement for the supply of liquid carbon dioxide (CO2) from Fox River Valley Ethanol’s recently acquired plant in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 09/18/2013

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.

LanzaTech announced that it has been awarded a $4 million grant through the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA-E) Reducing Emissions Using Methanotrophic Organisms for Transportation Energy (REMOTE) Program. 09/22/2013

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) Services Foundation has released a white paper on 'Certification of Biofuels from Waste: The RSB Approach.' 09/22/2013

Florida Based BioNitrogen Corporation has announced that the patent for its biomass-to-urea technology has been approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 09/22/2013

Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has announced a new loan facility with Sparbanken Nord for onlending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and for environmental investments in northern Sweden. 09/21/2013

The United Kingdom (UK) Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has announced a new £6 million grant funding program to help Local Authorities (LAs) in England and Wales develop new heating and cooling networks and expand existing networks. 09/21/2013

Illinois based Coskata Inc has announced its selection to negotiate an award under the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency's (ARPA-E) Reducing Emissions Using Methanotrophic Organisms for Transportation Energy (REMOTE) Program. 09/20/2013

Denmark headquartered Novozymes has announced its agreement with Brazil based Raizen Energia S/A to collaborate on production of cellulosic ethanol from sugarcane bagasse and straw. 09/20/2013

Portugal based Incbio has announced signing a contract with Biokast Energy S.A, to supply an 8,000MT per year biodiesel plant to be installed in Tunis, Tunisia, North Africa. 09/17/2013

California based Cool Planet Energy Systems has announced its selection of URS Corporation for engineering design of its first commercial biorefinery to be constructed in Louisiana. 09/17/2013

The Week's Action Items

Southern California Edison (SCE) has issued its 2013 Renewable & Alternative Power - Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Request for Offer ( RFO) to solicit Offers from owners and operators of CHP Facilities and Utility Prescheduled Facilities ("UPF"). 09/17/2013

Teru Talk Newsletter

Teru's Trash Talk

Hey Rube!

This Week's Top Story

The Week's News

The Week's Action Items