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
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news item, just change to
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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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