Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
42, October 21,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Wasted Water
- we touched lightly on the
subject in last week's Trash
Talk - is not something we
usually think about that we
throw away, that we could
instead recover and turn back
into a resource instead of a
liability. Yet for a lot of the
world, water is at least as
precious as food, and far more
valuable than fuel or
electricity. Could we in the
Highly Civilized areas ever see
water as gold? Well, we all
know the old song about when
you finally will miss it
…
And boy, how
we waste water! If we're not
jigglin' the handle on the
commode, we're forgetting to
flip to the Rainy Day setting
in our automated sprinkler
system. Water waste around the
homestead is one thing; wasting
water in business is something
very different. Vast lakes full
of water get traded for
fractions of pennies on the
dollar, and of course what
doesn't really cost you, isn’t
worth conserving. The City of
Sacramento still has 57,000
unmetered water services within
its boundaries. Heck, it's
hardly worth counting - and
what you don't count, you can't
manage.
Here's an
interesting "business"
perspective: your own work may
not use much water; it may not
even be a "line item" in your
budget, yet if those guys you
buy stuff from need a lot of
water that THEY can't get, you
go outta business anyway. So
it's your Supply Chain that you
need to pay attention to, not
your monthly water bill. Anyone
that resells foodstuff is in
this fix, but so are the
compost producer, the garden
supply store and nursery, the
neighborhood landscape
maintenance business, and that
corner lemonade stand that
earned your kid the money for
Camp last summer.
And it's not
just letting the hose water run
down the driveway. One of the
crazy ways we throw away water
is with the restaurant's table
scraps and the supermarket's
rotten bananas: food waste is
usually well over 50%,
sometimes as high as 80% water.
Yet away it goes like we have
Water to Waste and all we see
is the departing trash truck,
not the constantly-sinking
underground puddle (or
"aquifer") our wells draw
from.
We all hear the Emergency
Preparedness warning about
storing water in case of a
disaster. What if there isn't
even enough water to store,
long before that earthquake
strikes? Silly thought? Some
smart folks are predicting that
the Great Central Valley of
California, our international
bread-basket, is due to dry up
within the decade. You're
probably right; they are
probably wrong.
Maybe.
Hey
Rube!
Just step
back from the ledges for a
moment and think about where
all the stuff you depend upon
comes from. Think about what it
takes to fill that supply line,
so you can depend on getting
what you need, when you need
it. Think beyond brown grass
and shorter showers to consider
entire crops lost, rivers
losing their fisheries, whole
regions drying up. Now do the
math, and make an educated
guess at what Water is
really worth.
The
Week's Extra Reading
Teru recently
attended the CIFAR Conference
XXXII on Managing Energy, Water
and By-products for
Profitability in Food and
Beverage Processing.
Here is his
report
. Also take a look at
the
final agenda
with links to
the presentations.
This Week's Top Story
Enterra's
New Technology Converts
Waste Food Nutrients into
Healthy
Food
Enterra Feed Corporation, a
Vancouver-based company, has
announced an innovative new
technology that transforms
nutrient-rich, clean food waste
into high-quality, natural
protein, oils, and fertilizer
that help grow healthy animals
and plants.
10/17/2013
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.
Stanford
Researchers Generate
Electricity from Sewage
Using Wired
Microbes
Stanford University has
announced that an
interdisciplinary research team
has created a "microbial
battery" driven by naturally
occurring bacteria that have
evolved to produce electricity
as they digest plant and animal
waste.
10/20/2013
Renewable
Energy Plant at the Village
of Ridgewood WWTP Fully
Operational
A public-private partnership in
the Village of Ridgewood, New
Jersey has celebrated
the Grand
Opening of its renewable energy
project at the Village's
wastewater treatment plant
(WWTP).
10/20/2013
Chempolis
and ONGC Team for Cellulosic
Ethanol Biorefineries in
India
Finland based Chempolis Ltd has
announced signing a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) with Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation
Limited (ONGC), India's leading
oil and gas exploration
company, to team up for the
production of cellulosic
ethanol and biochemicals from
non-food biomass.
10/18/2013
LanzaTech
Partners With Korea's SK
Innovation for Green
Chemical
R
Korea based SK innovation and
LanzaTech have announced an
agreement to develop a new
process technology for the
production of 1,3 butadiene, a
platform chemical used in many
high growth industries
globally.
10/17/2013
Cool Planet
Announces Launch of Cool
Terra™ Biochar Soil
Amendment
Colorado based Cool Planet
Energy Systems has announced
the launch of their biochar
soil amendment product “Cool
Terra™” for commercial
agricultural trials.
10/17/2013
Greenleaf
Power Acquires St-Félicien
Cogénération Power Plant in
Quebec
California based Greenleaf
Power, LLC announced that it
has finalized the purchase of
the St-Félicien Cogénération
Power Plant located in
St-Félicien, Quebec, Canada,
approximately 300 miles north
of Montréal.
10/17/2013
Sweetwater
Energy JVs with Naturally
Scientific to Convert CO2 to
Sugar
New York based Sweetwater
Energy, Inc. has announced a
50/50 joint venture with
Naturally Scientific to produce
sugar from waste carbon dioxide
(CO2).
10/15/2013
Community-Scale
Wood Bioenergy Workshop
Series, Field Tour
Scheduled
The Woody Biomass Utilization
Group at the University of
California, Berkeley has
scheduled a series of 2013 3e
workshops on Community-scale
Wood Bioenergy coupled with a
half day field tour
highlighting innovative
approaches to the regional
woody biomass supply
chain. 10/15/2013
Darling Intl
to Acquire Vion Ingredients
to Expand Food Waste
Solutions
Texas based Darling
International Inc, a rendering,
recycling, and recovery
solutions provider to the
nation's food industry, has
announced that it has entered
into a definitive agreement to
acquire shares of Netherlands
based Vion Ingredients, a
division of Vion Holding N.V.
(Vion Food Group), for
approximately €1.6 billion.
10/14/2013
CCEMC
Provides Over $46 Million to
Support 8 Renewable Energy
Projects
The Climate Change and
Emissions Management (CCEMC)
Corporation in Alberta, Canada
has announced a commitment of
more than $46 million in
funding for eight renewable
energy projects.
10/14/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
12/06/2013: CEC PIER
Applications for Renewable
Energy RD&D
Projects
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has released
Program Opportunity Notice
PON-13-502 for Joint Renewable
Energy and Advanced Generation,
and Energy-Related
Environmental Research,
Development and Demonstration.
10/18/2013
Due
01/15/2014: Renewable Energy
Applications to SEF for 0%
Financing
The Sustainable Energy Fund
(SEF) has announced the
introduction of its new
Sustainable
Energy
Finance program,
which will be available to
non-profit and governmental
entities to complete energy
efficiency or renewable energy
projects in the areas served by
the electric grid managed by
PJM Interconnection.
10/14/2013
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