Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
15, April 14,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
It's a
fair question and one that
we're often asked: is
"forest biomass residual"
really a waste?
After all, Teru Talk is all
about clean waste
conversion - and if biomass
in forests isn't really a
Waste, why even mention it?
OK, this is in large part a
Word Game, you say
potaaato, tomaaato - but
let's look at the basics
and draw a
line.
What
society calls a Waste, we
see as a resource about to
be wasted. Forested areas
get choked with brush and
scraggly trees because we
haven't allowed any fires
to do the work for the past
100 years. We now
understand that we need to
clear out some of the
overgrowth, and that means
we need to get rid of the
stuff we've cut back. When
timber management practices
leave the tree tops, stump,
branches, and brush behind
to be burnt in piles, to us
that fits the
"resource-about-to-be-wasted"
category. When the Utility
companies clear under their
endless power lines, when
agencies and property
owners need to reduce fire
risk by clearing brush
around structures, you
guessed it: they tend to
make big burn piles. That's
a Waste.
Yep, we
certainly should be doing
Something with all that
excess biomass besides
torching it. But just
because something seems
like a good idea does not
mean we should or even
could make it happen.
Forests are not the easiest
or cheapest places to get
things in and out of. Some
of the left-overs should be
left to rot, or maybe
chipped and spread out over
the forest floor. When the
piles are close to a road,
it’s a bit cheaper and
easier to use the chipped
wood along those same
roadways, or trundle off
down to the nearest big
biomass plant. All good
ideas, all great ways to
use that forest biomass,
and altogether insufficient
to make a dent in
management of, say 100,000
acres of overgrown woods.
Get back in more than a
half mile or so, and those
resources are just too
expensive to do anything
with, other than light a
match to it.
There are
really bright people who
argue incessantly about how
much is enough, how much is
too much biomass to leave
on the forest floor. Argue
on and on about the "carbon
balance" and whether or not
a super-dense forest
landscape is better than
one that has been thinned
out. We'll leave
those squabbles to
the Biology Brains to
figure out, but there will
be Some Amount that does
need to be removed from any
one forest, depending on
what measures you use. If
you measure the vast amount
of smoke and sheer
destruction caused by a
catastrophic fire of the
scale that has scarred
great stretches of land in
the Western US of late, you
might argue for more
thinning, rather than less.
If indeed we wait until
something like the Rim Fire
blackens another state-size
patch of forest, most would
certainly call that a Waste
of Resources.
It gets right back down to
how we count the money, and
who pays. Removing
enough of the
biomass that would
otherwise be simply
"wasted" from a forest
can't usually be paid for
from the proceeds of
turning that woody excess
to power or fuel. Instead,
let's count on the
avoided costs we
garner from less wildlands
destruction, less loss of
property, less loss of
watershed integrity, less
loss of life. Losing a few
hundred tons of wood chips
may or may not be a
"waste", but losing an
entire forest and the
communities within it
certainly
qualifies.
Hey
Rube!
Weird as the global weather
continues to be, this Fire
Season is shaping up to be a
real challenge. Think about
what biomass resources
you can manage, what
biomass usage policies
you can positively
impact. Together, we can "chip
away" at this mountain of a
problem. Take a look at Placer
County's video below and
think about what you can
do.
This Week's Top Story
Ameresco
Biomass Cogen Plant Uses
Damaged Wood from Ice
Storm
Massachusetts
based Ameresco, Inc has
announced that its
biomass cogeneration
facility located at the
US Department of Energy
(DOE) Savannah River Site
(SRS) in Aiken, South
Carolina is utilizing
storm-damaged timber as a
result of the major ice
storm which impacted the
US southern region during
February 11-13, 2014.
04/09/2014
The
Week's News
Xergi
Contracts to Supply Turnkey
Biogas Plant to Méthalandes
in
France
Denmark
based Xergi A/S has
announced an order from
the biogas company
Méthalandes to build
France's largest biogas
plant to date based on
waste products from
agriculture and the food
industry.
04/11/2014
GSO Invests
$150MM in Rentech to Fund
Growth in Wood Fibre
Business
Los
Angeles based Rentech,
Inc has announced that
GSO Capital Partners LP
(GSO), the credit
investment arm of
Blackstone, will invest
$150 million in Rentech
in the form of $100
million of convertible
preferred stock and a $50
million term loan.
04/11/2014
SENA Waste
Services Wins Contract to
Operate and Maintain
Edmonton
MRF
Alberta
based SENA Waste Services
has announced that the
City of Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, has
awarded it a five-year
contract worth up to $45
million to operate and
maintain the
64,000-square-foot
Materials Recovery
Facility (MRF) at the
Edmonton Waste Management
Centre (EWMC).
04/10/2014
Placer
County Forest Biomass to
Energy Initiative Releases
New
Video
The
Placer County Air
Pollution Control
District in California
has released the final
version of their video on
the University of
California (UC) Berkeley
Blodgett Forest Research
Station Biomass Project.
04/09/2014
LEC and M
Energy Partner to Restart
140MM Litre Australian
Biodiesel
Plant
British
Columbia based Lignol
Energy Corporation (LEC)
has announced signing a
formal Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with
South Korea company M
Energy Co, Ltd (M
Energy), establishing the
framework for the two
companies to restart
LEC’s 140 million litre
per year biodiesel plant
and incorporate M
Energy’s proprietary
pre-treatment technology.
04/08/2014
Zayed Future
Energy Prize Launches Global
Outreach for Current
Competition
The
Zayed Future Energy Prize
has announced a global
outreach campaign to
drive awareness and
promote submissions for
the seventh edition of
awards for innovation in
renewable energy and
sustainability, which
closes July 14, 2014.
04/08/2014
CRIBE
Invests up to $1.5MM for
Ensyn's RFO™ Biofuels Plant
in
Renfrew
Ontario,
Canada based Centre for
Research & Innovation
in the Bio-Economy
(CRIBE) has announced
making an investment of
up to $1.5 Million in
Ensyn Technologies’
Renfrew biofuels facility
for capital improvements
to increase production
capacity.
04/08/2014
LanzaTech
Moves to Establish Global
Headquarters in
Illinois
Illinois
Governor Pat Quinn
announced that LanzaTech,
a company founded in New
Zealand, will establish
its global headquarters
in Illinois.
04/07/2014
EC Proposes
to End Support for Food Crop
Based Biofuels by
2020
The
Institute for European
Environmental Policy
(IEEP) has provided a
synopsis of recent
European Commission (EC)
findings, stating that
the EC has made a "bold
but simple proposal" to
end all policy support
for food crop based
biofuels.
04/07/2014
BCBN
Supports Diacarbon Energy’s
Pilot Torrefaction Project
with
$1MM
BC
Bioenergy Network (BCBN)
has announced that it
will provide $1 million
in funding to Diacarbon
Energy Inc (Diacarbon) to
demonstrate its
Torrefaction Bioreactor
Technology.
04/07/2014
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