Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume III, Issue
5, February 4,
2013
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
What
curious creatures we Humans
are. We've been listening
to the Petroleum Industry
moan, "Awww, there ain't no
Commercial Cellulosic
Biofuel, Nowhere!" The
operative word here is
"commercial"; you need
off-take agreements to
attract the funding and
need funding to go fully
commercial. The military
has shown that with the
proper grease to the skids,
they can come up with the
needed quantities of
biofuel. The oil companies
are the same
institutionalized
industrial bullies that are
now buying up those same
biofuels technologies at
fire-sale prices. It's the
push-pull game we've
watched as the old school
Recycling and Landfill guys
scream about Conversion
Technologies. Nothing new
here.
One line
in a Reuters' news piece
explaining Brazil's public
response to biofuels caught
my eye this week: "Drivers
of Brazil's flex-fuel cars,
which can run on pure
ethanol, gasoline or any
mix of both, tend to switch
between the two whenever
price fluctuations make one
or the other
cheaper."
Any new
market player readjusts
that market, and corn
prices are what many focus
on to show the horrors of
an ethanol industry that
depends on Food to make
Fuel. That's almost too
easy; just use a feedstock
you can't eat. Hey! What
about converting the
American Tsunami of Trash?
You just need to make sure
you have the right tools in
your kit; there seems to be
plenty of potential
feedstock material
constantly entering the
waste flow.
The old
school US industries spit
and hiss, while European
engineering and waste
management conglomerates
gather in the tools as fast
as they can. Conglomerates
in Sweden and Finland are
making sure they've got
their complement of
pre-treatment Enzymatics
and Hydro-pulping,
Anaerobic Digestion,
Pyrolysis and Gasification,
and Biogas Clean-up and
Upgrading capabilities.
Germany is teaching other
countries how to contract
the Fatherland's expertise
for waste conversion. China
is constantly hunting
partnerships and securing
capacity to turn waste into
goods for a profit. One big
Chinese bank has recently
decided to develop 800
rural biogas plants "to
celebrate their
anniversary." Canada is
"institutionalizing" the
process with the provincial
governments nudging
together all the requisite
parts into their own
version of a Circular
Economy. Our Petro Monopoly
meanwhile is betting on
fracking and oil shale and
spending millions to stomp
on anything that might
bring on good old American
Competition.
It always
comes back to the Money. If
you have to manage
something that costs you
dearly on an on-going basis
and you can figure out a
way to turn that liability
into an asset, you get a
double economic bump for
the better. If you
constantly pay for
something that you can make
cleaner and cheaper, that's
what you should do. But if
you are the Big Guys
getting paid by the ton to
manage waste, you push back
on anything that distracts.
If you're the Bullies that
get Government subsidies to
sell dirty fuel to folks
who have always bought it,
you certainly don't want
some smarty finding a way
to make that cash flow dry
up, be it in the public
good or not. Not, at least,
until you own the new
technologies.
Hey
Rube!
Everyone
cringes when another form needs
to be filled out, when another
"report" has to be filed. Yet
there are also
opportunities scattered
among those dubious
obligations. In the Plus
category are the chances we
have to speak up, to file
Comments to the agencies and
institutions that run the Game.
We've all fought long and hard
to have a say in how that Game
is constructed and it has been
the Stakeholders who have
demanded a way to have input,
but when it comes to taking
time for "maintenance" our
attention is usually less than
stunning. When an agency says,
"Here's what we're planning to
do to you; whaddaya think?"
that's your queue to read the
stuff, think it through, and
respond. And that, dear
readers, is a lot of the reason
why Teru Talk posts Action
Items.
The
Week's News
JBEI Shows
Ionic Liquid Pre-Treatment
Converts Mixed Biomass to
Sugars
The US Department of Energy's
Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory (LBNL) has announced
results of a study undertaken
by the Joint BioEnergy
Institute (JBEI), showing that
ionic liquids can effectively
convert mixed biomass feedstock
to fermentable sugars.
02/02/2013
Alter NRG
Plasma System Commissioned
in Chinese Waste to Fuels
Plant
The Canadian plasma specialist
Alter NRG Corp. has announced
that a Westinghouse Plasma
gasification system it sold to
Wuhan Kaidi Holding Investment
Company, Ltd. (Kaidi) in 2010
has now been successfully
commissioned in Wuhan, China
for the conversion of waste to
beneficial biodiesel and liquid
transportation fuels.
02/02/2013
Green Fuels
Installs FuelMatic Biodiesel
Processing Plant in
Bali
United Kingdom based Green
Fuels has announced that it has
installed and commissioned a
turnkey FuelMatic GSX 3 (3,000
litre/day) modular biodiesel
processing system in the island
nation of Bali.
02/01/2013
Outotec
Receives Order for Thermal
System for US Cellulosic
Ethanol
Plant
The Finland-headquartered
multi-faceted engineering and
development company Outotec Oyi
has announced receipt of an
order for an Energy Products of
Idaho (EPI) thermal conversion
system to power a 95 million
liter cellulosic ethanol plant
in the United States.
01/31/2013
Neo Energy
to Bring Food Waste
Conversion to Massachusetts
BioPark
The New Hampshire based
anaerobic digestion company Neo
Energy LLC moved a step closer
to adding food waste to biogas
capacity to the SouthCoast Life
Science and Technology Park in
Fall River, Massachusetts,
according to local coverage of
last week's Fall River
Redevelopment Authority
meeting.
01/31/2013
RENAC
Launches 2nd Renewables
Training Program to Serve
South
Africa
The German company Renewables
Academy (RENAC) has announced
the year's second major project
for building international
renewable energy development
capacity, this time initiating
the Transfer Renewable Energy
& Efficiency (TREE) project
to train South African policy
makers in agencies and
industry.
01/31/2013
Hang Seng
Bank Will Build 800 Biogas
Plants in Mainland
China
China based Hang Seng Bank has
announced that i it will build
800 biogas producing
underground anaerobic digestion
plants in mainland China in
commemoration of its 80th
anniversary.
01/30/2013
RENAC Hosts
Seminars on Bioenergy for
Russian Agencies and
Industries
The Germany based company
Renewables Academy (RENAC) has
announced that it will be
hosting a series of five day
training sessions in Russia
designed to introduce both
political and industry decision
makers to bioenergy and in
particular, anaerobic digestion
for production of biogas.
01/30/2013
Linde
Licenses Carbo-V
Gasification Technology to
Forest BtL
Oy
Germany based gas management
and engineering company Linde
Engineering Dresden GmbH has
signed an agreement with the
Finnish company Forest BtL Oy,
licensing its biomass
gasification technology
Carbo-V® for implementation in
a new Biomass–to-Liquid (BtL)
plant in Kemi, Northern
Finland.
01/30/2013
PUC Approves
H-Power PPA between HECO and
City & County of
Honolulu
The Hawaiian Electric Company
(HECO) has announced
that the
Hawaii Public Utilities
Commission has approved a
revised renewable energy power
purchase agreement (PPA)
between the City & County
of Honolulu and the utility.
01/30/2013
ENER-G
Launches Four New Landfill
Gas to Power
Projects
United Kingdom (UK) based
ENER-G Group announced last
Friday that its subsidiary
ENER-G Natural Power has
partnered with Seneca Global
Energy for three UK landfill
gas to power projects, and then
on Monday announced a contract
with sister company Biogas
Technology for the team's
second landfill gas to power
project in Mexico.
01/29/2013
Wasabi Will
Build 1st Kalina Cycle®
Waste Heat to Power Plant in
China
Australia based Wasabi Energy
Ltd. has announced that
Shanghai Shenghe New Energy
Resources Science and
Technology (SSNE) has signed an
engineering, procurement, and
construction agreement with the
Sinopec Hainan Refining &
Chemical Co., Ltd. for a 4.0 MW
Kalina Cycle® power plant.
01/29/2013
The Week's Action
Items
Due
02/15/2013:Concept to DOE
for Biomass Feedstock
Logistics System
Grant
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced the release
of Funding Opportunity
Announcement (DE-FOA-0000836)
for Advanced Biomass Feedstock
Logistics Systems II, following
on a November 2012 Request for
Information (DE-FOA-0000791).
01/29/2013
Due
02/28/2013: Comments on
Revised UK Quality Protocol
of
Biomethane
The United Kingdom's (UK)
Environment Agency (EA) has
announced the release of a
revised draft document, Quality
Protocol for Biomethane, an
environmental risk assessment
for biomethane, and an
explanation of the revisions
made to the draft protocol
released last year.
02/01/2013
Due
03/08/2013: Comments to
California's Cap-and-Trade
Investment
Plan
The California Air Resources
Board (ARB) has announced it
will host three regional
workshops addressing the
development of an investment
plan for the auction proceeds
from the Cap-and-Trade program
to reduce greenhouse gases
(GHGs).
02/01/2013
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