Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
12, March 24,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
We are
getting a little better at
thinking before tossing,
and a lot better at
reclaiming discards to put
to other uses. The only
thing more sustainable than
turning waste back into
usable goods is not making
waste in the first place.
But let's be honest. I
don't want to eat
the potato peels; apples
are great but the stems and
seeds, not so much … and
all that plastic packaging
is only a handy wrap until
I defrost the meat. Those
potato skins and apple
cores make great compost.
The yoghurt containers are
easy: three holes in the
bottom, and I've gained a
new pot for garden
transplants, but I only
need so many pots. Try as I
might, there will be
trash.
At the
City and County level, good
people 'round the globe are
figuring out that those
potato peels and apple
cores can mean more biogas
when added to the digesters
they set up to manage their
sewage. OK, so we're
starting to get the gist of
the Food Waste thing. Now
let's turn our communal
attention to the
rest of the trash,
the stuff left after all
the cans and bottles are
picked out, the more
stubborn stuff that you
can't turn into compost or
biogas. It turns out that
sheet plastic and styrofoam
do dissolve back to
their original components,
marinated in the right
nasty-sauce. We are finding
ways to take apart crud at
the molecular level,
save the bits and pieces,
and turn that stuff
into fuel and
chemicals.
We have
learned that if we
carefully heat crud without
much oxygen we can keep it
from torching, then draw
off the fumes and put
those molecules back
into use. Some stuff, all
you can do is burn it … but
let's remember that burning
for energy can actually be
a viable last resort. If
some of the woody bits and
pieces must be
burnt, we can use even that
part more sanely, for
example, as a replacement
for old-school coal plant
fuel.
One of
the more controversial
Agency plays is to Just Say
No to allowing landfill
disposal of organic slop.
Pretty drastic, but this
tactic has been going on
now long enough where we
start to see how folks
respond when they quit
griping. Somebody comes
along and puts Business in
place to gather up those
rotting veggies and make
money out of them. It seems
to work best when there is
more warning, giving
sufficient time at least
for the partnering,
funding, siting,
permitting, and
construction. But Business
won't be able to get enough
rot-able crud as long as it
is cheaper to just send
that goo to a hole in the
ground. Somehow, we must
stop burying our unwanted
and left-over resources out
of communal ignorance and
desperation.
Nobody really knows how
much of the goods we use
can be made from the trash
we toss. Agencies can
estimate the total
available biogas in a
region, but here's the
hitch: as soon as that crud
isn't trash any
more, as soon as somebody
finds a use for another
fraction of what is now
just "garbage", that
discarded stuff magically
has Value and the whole
game changes.
Hey
Rube!
There are lots of opportunities
for us to have our say with the
Powers That Be. Maybe you think
nobody listens, and maybe you
are right. But if you don't
make the effort and speak up,
you most certainly can't claim
a voice in the debate. Check
our News and Action Items; pick
your battles, and have your
say.
The
Week's Extra Reading
Teru reports
on California's next steps for
the LCFS from the waste
conversion perspective. Be sure
to read his Focus Report on the
'
Low Carbon Fuel Standard
Re-Adoption
' after the court pushed (and
released) the pause
button.
This Week's Top Story
Anaergia
Selected for Biogas
Upgrading Facility to Serve
9 WWTPs in
Arizona
Canada
based Anaergia Inc and
its project partner,
Arizona company Grannus
LLC, have been selected
to enter negotiations
with the Pima County
Regional Wastewater
Reclamation Department
(PCRWRD) in Arizona to
design-build-finance-own-operate
(DBFOO) a large-scale
biogas upgrading
facility.
03/21/2014
The
Week's News
Tamar
Energy's New Retford
Anaerobic Digestion Facility
is Officially
Open
United
Kingdom (UK) based Tamar
Energy Limited has
announced that a new
anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility has been
officially opened in
Retford, Nottinghamshire
by The Rt Hon Greg Barker
MP, Minister of State for
Energy and Climate
Change.
03/21/2014
CalRecycle
Schedules Workshop Series on
Thermal Resource
Recovery
The
California Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
announced the first in a
series of workshops to
address thermal
conversion of waste to
energy.
03/21/2014
GIB Invests
in Proposed UK Energy from
Waste Facility Near King's
Lyon
The
United Kingdom (UK) Green
Investment Bank (GIB) has
announced its commitment
to making an investment
of £51m into a proposed
new energy from waste
plant in Kings Lynn,
Norfolk.
03/20/2014
Biochar May
Be Effective in Removal of
Heavy Metal from Acid
Wastewater
Researchers
from the Chinese Academy
of Sciences' Institute
for Urban Environment
have found that biochar
made from pyrolysis of
the organic residuals
from anaerobic digestion
can be effective in the
removal of heavy metal
contaminants from acidic
industrial wastewater.
03/20/2014
AfDB
Launches Clean Energy
Business Plan Competition in
Africa
The
Sustainable Energy Forum
for Africa (SEFA), a
program of the African
Development Bank (AfDB),
has announced launch of
the third Africa Forum
for Clean Energy
Financing (AFRICEF-3)
Business Plan Competition
with submissions due
April 13, 2014.
03/20/2014
Feedstock
Supply LOI Signed for
Bluesphere's Rhode Island
Biogas
Plant
Israel
and Nevada based
Bluesphere Corporation
has announced signing a
Letter of Intent (LOI)
with Massachusetts
company Organic Waste
Management, LLC for
100-200 tons of organic
waste (primarily food
waste) per day to supply
Bluesphere's proposed 3.2
MW biogas
plant. 03/20/2014
Cahill
Energy Contracts for Plasma
Waste-to-Energy Plant in
Barbados
Guernsey
based Cahill Energy has
announced entering into
an agreement with the
Government of Barbados to
build and operate a clean
waste-to-energy plant on
the Caribbean island.
03/18/2014
MU Study:
Small Biomass Power Plants
Could Stabilize National
Power
Grid
The
University of Missouri
(MU) has announced a
study by MU researchers
that has found that
creating a bioenergy grid
with small biomass power
plants could benefit
people in rural areas of
the country as well as
provide relief to an
overworked national power
grid. 03/18/2014
DTE's
Stockton Coal-to-Biomass
Power Plant Conversion
Complete
DTE
Energy Services, Inc
(DTEES), a subsidiary of
Michigan based DTE Energy
Company, has announced
completion of the
conversion of its
shuttered coal-fired
power plant to operate on
biomass at the Port of
Stockton.
03/18/2014
GeoSynFuels
Acquires Wyoming Cellulosic
Ethanol Demo
Plant
Colorado
based GeoSynFuels, LLC
(GSF) has announced the
acquisition of a
cellulosic ethanol
demonstration facility
located in Upton,
Wyoming.
03/18/2014
The Week's Action
Items
Due
05/25/2014: Qualifications
for Kabd MSW Treatment
Facility,
Kuwait
The
Partnerships Technical
Bureau (PTB) in
collaboration with Kuwait
Municipality has issued a
Request for Qualification
for the Kabd Municipal
Solid Waste Project (the
“Project”).
03/21/2014
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