Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
44, November 4,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
The parade of Goulies,
Ghosts and Goblins is now
past, leaving in their wake a
sad collection of
jack-o-lanterns whose scary
smiles are beginning to sag. In
the US, our Department of
Energy says we produce 1.4
BILLION pounds of pumpkins each
year and a whole lot goes from
making a happy Halloween to
being a humongous waste. We
carve 'em, prop 'em up - and
then drop 'em in the
dumpster.
This Pumpkin
Catastrophe not just a US
peccadillo: the UK considers
pumpkin waste the real
Halloween Nightmare with
thousands of tons of prime
pumpkins tossed into the trash
each year. One of the larger UK
market chains, Tesco, points to
their own annual sales of 2
million pumpkins by the end of
October, mostly sold in the
week before
Halloween.
There's this
long-standing argument about
how proper it is to make fuel
from food stuff. How can
Biofuels producers in good
conscious take food from the
very mouths of the starving
populace just to make a buck.
Why, oh why can't we just EAT
the darn things? So when we
approach this end-of-harvest
global celebration, out come
all the pumpkin recipes -
pumpkin soups and soufflés,
pumpkin lasagna and don't
forget the roast pumpkin seeds
…
But if you've
ever tried to make a pie out of
the pumpkins sold for Halloween
you know that, well, there's a
difference. The vast majority
of those big old gourds we buy
late in October are grown to be
carved and trashed, not to be
turned into delectable pies and
cookies. They are dry, even
sorta woody. They sure aren't
very sweet. And they are
made that way on
purpose, 'cause people aren't
buying those things to eat. OK,
so everybody gets a bit
of the blame for this one, from
the farmer to the market, the
buyer to the City's trash
management folks. For All
Hallow's Eve, the really scary
thing is we are
intentionally making
food to waste, from seed to
final toss.
You can
actually buy pumpkins that make
good munchies, and you can
still carve 'em with a ghoulish
face. Next year, remember to
save and roast the seeds when
you carve your masterpiece, so
you don't get a hoard of
volunteer pumpkin sprouts in
your garden. If you compost
your household food waste, by
all means compost those
jack-o-lanterns. Right now,
you've got a fuzzy pumpkin
carcass to do something with,
and there's always the
trashcan.
You've now
got a year before the Great
Pumpkin Nightmare of 2014. You
have time to ask around, see if
maybe there is someone within
pumpkin-pitching distance that
can turn those tons of pulp
into compost, or even biogas in
an anaerobic digester. Well,
somebody
should.
Hey
Rube!
Ask your
local officials what they'd
like you to do with your dead
pumpkins. They have plans for
unwanted Christmas trees, after
all.
The
Week's Extra Reading
The Puente
Hills Landfill in Los Angeles
County closed last week after
operating for over 50 years.
The November 1st newsletter of
"
Beyond Waste
"
by Edgar and Associates has an
excellent writeup, and besides,
it's a good read.
This Week's Top Story
Algae.Tec
Will Supply Technology to
Phoenix Energy Australia's
W2E
Plants
Australia based Algae.Tec Ltd
has announced entering in a
binding agreement with Phoenix
Energy Australia Pty Ltd to
provide its proprietary algae
to biofuels technology for
proposed waste to energy (W2E)
facilities in Australia and New
Zealand.
10/29/2013
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.
Foster
Wheeler Receives FNTP for
CFB Steam Generator in South
Korea
Foster Wheeler AG just
announced that a subsidiary of
its Global Power Group has
received a full notice to
proceed (FNTP) by GS
Engineering and Construction
for the design and supply of a
circulating fluidized-bed (CFB)
steam generator for the Green
Energy Centre Project.
10/31/2013
Biodiesel
Production By-Product Can
PreTreat Sugarcane Bagasse
for
Biofuels
Researchers at the Queensland
University of Technology’s
Syngenta Centre for Sugarcane
Biofuels Development in
Australia have just published
an article on the use of a
by-product of biodiesel
production, glycerine, modified
as glycerol carbonate (GC), to
pre-treat sugar cane bagasse
for biofuels production.
10/31/2013
Waste2Tricity
Negotiates $1.5 million
Equity Investment in Thai
Subsidiary
London based Waste2Tricity Ltd
(W2T) has announced completion
of negotiations for a $1.5
million investment into its
wholly owned subsidiary,
Waste2Tricity International
(Thailand) Ltd.
10/30/2013
Albany
County Sewer District
Installs CHP System for
Energy From Waste
Heat
The New York State Energy
Research & Development
Authority (NYSERDA) announced
the unveiling of the Albany
County Sewer District's
(District) multi-stage combined
heat and power (CHP) system
that is expected to save the
county an estimated $400,000
per year.
10/30/2013
Akron
Unveils New AD Facility that
Converts 100% of Biosolids
to
Biogas
The City of Akron, Ohio, has
announced completion of the
Akron Renewable Energy Facility
at its Water Reclamation
Facility that converts
biosolids into biogas to
produce renewable energy in the
form of electricity.
10/30/2013
IBERDROLA
Awarded Contract to Build
Two Biomass Power Plants in
Canada
Based in Spain, Iberdrola, S.A,
has announced that IBERDROLA
INGENIERÍA, the group's
engineering and construction
company, has been awarded a
contract valued at €240 million
for construction of two biomass
power plants in British
Columbia, Canada with a
combined capacity of 80
megawatts (MW).
10/29/2013
ITRI
Introduces 1st Technology
for Bio-Butanol from
Cellulosic
Biomass
The Taiwan based Industrial
Technology Research Institute
(ITRI) has announced the
introduction of ButyFix™, the
first biochemical technology
for bio-butanol
transportation-fuel production
with a negative carbon
footprint using cellulosic
biomass as feedstock instead of
corn.
10/29/2013
Symposium
Scheduled on the 'Future of
Energy Recovery from
Wastes'
An international gathering of
scientists, researchers, and
industry experts will be
meeting in Toronto on Thursday,
October 31, 2013 to discuss the
opportunities and challenges
created by state-of-the-art
energy recovery
(energy-from-waste) technology.
10/28/2013
Emerald
Biogas Opens Food Waste to
Energy AD Plant in NE
England
United Kingdom based Emerald
Biogas Ltd has announced
completion of its new anaerobic
digestion (AD) plant, the first
commercial food waste facility
in North East England to begin
operating.
10/28/2013
Covanta and
Turning Earth to Provide
Organics Recycling in
Connecticut
US based Covanta Energy
Corporation and Turning Earth,
LLC have announced a new
partnership to provide organics
recycling to Connecticut
municipalities and businesses.
10/28/2013
REG Opens
Mason City Biodiesel Plant
and Announces $20 Million
Upgrade
Iowa based Renewable Energy
Group (REG) announced that it
held a ribbon cutting ceremony
today to formally open its
recently acquired biodiesel
refinery in Mason City, Iowa
and announced it has begun a
$20 million project to upgrade
the plant to a multi-feedstock
facility.
10/28/2013
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