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Teru Talk News

Teru Talk Newsletter

Volume III, Issue 41, October 14, 2013 
Teru Talk by Michael Theroux (pronounced "Terú")  

Teru's Trash Talk

The world moves so fast, we've all gotten used to seeing concepts that were considered impossible yesterday become old hat today. What was "science fiction" in our youth is now common practice for our children. So too it will be with the need to explain Waste Conversion.

I can see it now: my granddaughters fidgeting, trying to put up with Grandpa's tales of when people actually threw resources away. Imagine: we could have run everything on the carrot tops and fish we didn't eat but Oh, No! - that was just so nasty and dangerous and, and, so Nasty! So we gathered it all up and actually paid somebody with a big truck to haul it off and bury it.

We'll need to explain, again, why we sent five gallons of water down a hole every time we wanted to get rid of a little bit of poo. Not because the poo didn't need to "go away" - not because we hadn't figured out betters ways to turn that stuff, too, into energy and fuel - but because we could, back then when there was plenty of water. Just imagine: water to waste.

Back in the days when we'd rather let our magnificent forests burn to cinders and dead soil, than to properly manage them for both their beauty and their abundant excess. In the Old Times, when we could use an electronic device and just toss it when it broke, never mind that there was a good reason those bits that made it work were known as "rare elements."

There is absolutely no reason now not to recycle everything we don't want. We have the technologies and the know-how to "reconstitute" every last iota of our discards. This was simply not the case a decade ago, and a decade from now, our children won't understand why we didn't, you know, just Do It. But we are Humans after all, and we are susceptible to all the very Human foibles, even more so when our whole world seems constantly ready to implode.

If your business depends on cornering a part of the market that is threatened by too many re-made goods displacing your New Stuff, you work against that trend. Maybe you managed to claim the high ground and are selling "recycled plastic" for a good margin overseas while getting paid on both ends of the sale out of Public Funds: you protect your turf. If you own the Big Hole where everything is dumped, until the day when you can own the alternatives, you fight to keep the status quo.

If you as an agent of the law strictly attend to your encoded mandate without question, you'll just naturally wait for that mythical Someone Else to rewrite that code. And if you have attained the exalted position of being a Legislator, you listen to your constituents: you know, those guys that own the virgin-materials manufacturing, the export-dominated recycling businesses, and the landfills.

Hey, now, that's just not fair: we all are "constituents" of those every same Legislators! This mess can't be our fault, can it? Uh … I wonder if I should maybe figure out how to contact my Duly Appointed Representatives?      Ya THINK??

Hey Rube!

Our California Governor sent Senate Bill 804 back to the legislature unsigned, with direction that the agencies and the bill's stakeholders "…develop a sensible approach that would apply to all biomass facilities irrespective of the technologies used." Wonder if Jerry Brown reads Teru Talk?

This Week's Top Story

Beta Renewables' Advanced Biofuels Plant Produces Ethanol from Ag Waste

Danish company Novozymes has announced that Italy based Beta Renewables has officially opened the first advanced biofuels facility in the world designed produce bioethanol from agricultural residues and energy crops at commercial scale using hydrothermal treatment coupled with enzymatic conversion. 10/10/2013

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.

 

NRC Brings Biomass Into Canada's Energy Mix with Stationary Applications

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced the launch of its Bioenergy Systems for Viable Stationary Applications research program at this year's CanBio Annual Conference and Trade Show. 10/11/2013

Defra Establishes £3m Loan Fund for AD Plants to Turn Farm Waste to Energy

The United Kingdom (UK) Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced a new £3 million initiative, which will allow farmers to apply for up to £400,000 from the On Farm AD Fund to help them finance on-site anaerobic digestion (AD) technology. 10/11/2013

BDI – BioEnergy Signs Contract to Construct 1st Biodiesel Plant in Croatia

Austria based BDI – BioEnergy International AG has announced signing a contract with Biom AV d.o.o. for construction of the first Multi-Feedstock BioDiesel plant in Croatia with an order volume of more than 20 million Euros. 10/11/2013

PEAT International Commissions Plasma Thermal WtE System in Shanghai

United States based PEAT International, Inc has just announced the successful commissioning in August of a Plasma Thermal Destruction and Recovery (PTDR) system in Shanghai, China. 10/10/2013

Greenbelt, Diversified Ethanol Deliver Distillation Module to UF Pilot Plant

California based Greenbelt Resources Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary Diversified Ethanol Corporation have announced delivery and installation of a distillation module to the University of Florida (UF). 10/10/2013

Waste2Tricity Raises £1 Million to Support International Growth Strategy

London based Waste2Tricity (W2T) has announced a successful £1 million funding round from new investors from the UK, Europe, Thailand, Australia, UAE, and Israel, together with current shareholders and board directors. 08/09/2013 

ZooShare Offers Community Bonds to Finance Toronto Zoo Biogas Plant

The Canada based ZooShare Biogas Co-operative Inc has announced the official launch of their Community Bonds investment opportunity with a ceremony at the Toronto Zoo on October 10, 2013. 0/08/2013

WRAP Study Identifies Multi-Billion Pound Savings for the UK Grocery Sector

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has released results of a new innovative study that identifies how much food, drink, and packaging waste is generated in the United Kingdom's (UK) grocery retail supply chain. 10/08/2013

New OPTI-VFA Project Studies Optimization of Anaerobic Digestion of Waste

VTT Technological Research Centre of Finland (VTT) has announced a new European project that focuses on studying anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste and developing its control through optimization to increase profitability. 10/07/2013

State Seeking Public Input on Safeguarding California from Climate Change

The California Natural Resources Agency (Resources) is hosting a series of public workshops to get input from Californians on how the state should prepare for climate risks. 10/07/2013

Cool Planet, Acritaz Greentech Plan 1st Commercial Biorefinery in Malaysia

Cool Planet Energy Systems and Acritaz Greentech have announced entering into an agreement to explore development of multiple commercial facilities in Malaysia with construction of the first plant beginning in 2014 in the Malaysian state of Johor. 10/07/2013

RES Polyflow Concludes Successful Demo of Waste Plastic-To-Oil Conversion

Ohio based RES Polyflow has announced that the demonstration of the company’s patented energy recovery technology has successfully concluded with results that meet or exceed expectations. 10/04/2013

Lockheed Martin, Concord Blue Agree to Advance Waste Conversion Globally

Maryland based Lockheed Martin and California based Concord Blue USA, Inc, have reached an agreement to offer an advanced waste conversion system to address waste disposal, energy security, and climate control issues. 10/04/2013

BlueFire Renewables Expands Fulton Facility for New Revenue Stream

California based BlueFire Renewables has announced plans to integrate a wood pellet production plant into its proposed waste to ethanol facility in Fulton, Mississippi. 10/03/2013

Ormat 5MW Recovered Energy Plant to Power eBay's Utah Data Center

Nevada based Ormat Technologies, Inc through its wholly owned subsidiary has entered into an agreement with eBay Inc for development of a five-megawatt (MW) Recovered Energy Generation (REG) power plant at eBay’s new Salt Lake City, Utah based data center. 10/03/2013

UK Green Investment Bank Invests £11m in Welsh Bioenergy Plant Upgrades

The United Kingdom's (UK) Green Investment Bank (GIB) has announced a £11m investment by its fund, managed by Greensphere Capital LLP (Greensphere), to purchase and upgrade an operational biomass plant in Port Talbot, Wales. 10/03/2013

CIFAR Conference on Managing Energy, Water, Waste in Food Processing

The California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research (CIFAR) will be holding a conference on October 10, 2013 at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) campus that will address "Managing Energy, Water and By-products for Profitability in Food and Beverage Processing." 10/01/2013

SARTA Schedules Sacramento CleanStart/AgStart Showcases for Oct 16th

The Sacramento Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA) is presenting the 7th annual CleanStart Showcase on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 at the McClellan Conference Center to focus on the Sacramento, California region clean tech sector. 09/30/2013

Europlasma Completes Conciliation and Resumes Trading with New Funding

French company Europlasma has announced that its five month conciliation procedure was ratified by the court on September 9, 2013, and public trading resumed today. 09/30/2013

This Week's Action Items

Due 10/25/2013: Comments to ACR on Methodology for Biochar Projects

The American Carbon Registry (ACR), a non-profit enterprise of Winrock International, is requesting comments from its members, project proponents, and other interested parties on a new Methodology for Biochar Projects. 10/05/2013

Due 11/01/2013: Comments to AB 32 Scoping Plan Discussion Draft

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has scheduled a public workshop on October 15, 2013 at 1:00 pm for the the 2013 Updated AB 32 Scoping Plan (Discussion Draft). Release of the draft marks the beginning of the public comment period, and comments on the Discussion Draft are due by November 1, 2013. 10/05/2013

 

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The Teru Talk Newsletter is published weekly or more or less frequently, primarily depending on what is going on in the world of waste conversion or ours.