Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
16, April 21,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Bring on
the Heat! That's the
strident cry we're hearing
across the Waste Conversion
spectrum. Wood chips
replacing coal; Biochar
rising to the top of the
scientific pecking order -
more federal $$ for a whole
range of clean conversion,
especially thermal waste
conversion for production
of biofuels - and in
London, even Plasma gets
its
chance.
There is
just a whole lot of
waste-sourced resource that
needs heat to break it down
- those kinds of wastes for
which microbial
decomposition isn't well
suited. Global confidence
in super-efficient thermal
conversion is on the rise.
A lot of what has changed
is the technical ability to
take the synthetic gas that
is sucked off of that
super-heated waste and turn
it right back into fuels
and chemicals with the
magic of catalysis. In
part, we are guided by the
centuries-old wisdom of
adding carefully-made
charcoal - or "biochar" -
back to the soil to improve
its water and nutrient
holding ability. Then
again, wood smoke cruds up
the air less than coal
fumes, and biomass can fuel
those big old coal plants
just fine, with a little
effort. In the broader
view, people are waking up
to just how "sustainable"
it is to cleanly turn
any waste back to
goods, and just how
important thermal
conversion can be to reach
that worthy
goal.
There's a
Zen saying that you can use
a thorn to remove a thorn,
and then you throw both
away. We are learning to
use the Problem of too Much
Waste to solve the Problem
of Too Little Energy, and
there's hope in achieving a
balance between the two.
Yet the biggest reason we
are now seeing such a
sweeping shift toward
common sense inclusion of
thermal waste conversion in
our communal bag of tricks
is not the dramatic
improvement in technical
control and systems
availability. It isn't the
climate change wake-up
call, although greatly
reducing the damage we do
to the air we breathe seems
pretty darn important. It's
the increase in
scientifically-founded,
logic-driven,
problem-solving political
leadership ready to embrace
the entire realm of clean
waste conversion. THAT's
what changing the most:
Those at the top are
re-thinking what "Clean"
means.
When it comes to turning
waste back to goods, we've
all got a job to do - and
we need to gather up
all our tools,
including Bringing on the
Heat, to do that job
right.
Hey
Rube!
Here in California, the
Department of Recycling and
Resource Recovery will stage a
Re-Think Workshop focused on
the proper place for Thermal
Conversion, as we recently
reported. To
give this effort a push in
the right direction, one of
Dr. Eugene Tseng's students
at UCLA has started a
Change.Org
petition to emphasize
the Public's will regarding
the need to address thermal
waste conversion
technologies as a crucial
element of Integrated
Resource Recovery. Dr. Tseng
is one of the brighter
lights in this country on
this subject, and his
classes in modern
waste-as-resource management
are top notch. Ms. Chow's
petition deserves your
support. (Hint: If you use a
newer version of IE, set it
to compatibility
mode).
This Week's Top Story
Turku
Utilities in Finland Plan to
Exchange Coal for Biomass
and
Waste
The
energy consortium Turun
Seudun Energiantuotanto
Oy (TSE) in the Turku
region of Finland has
confirmed plans to
replace a 50-year-old
coal plant in Naantali
with a multifuel facility
that can be fuelled
entirely by biomass and
waste.
04/16/2014
The
Week's News
Springboard
to Host Webinar: Benefits of
Small-Scale Biodiesel
Production
California
based Springboard
Biodiesel has announced a
free informational
webinar lasting under an
hour on small-scale
production for affordable
clean burning biodiesel.
04/18/2014
INCBIO
Delivers Fully Built 8,000
MT/yr Biodiesel Plant to
North
Africa
Portugal
company Incbio has
announced delivery of an
8,000 MT per year
biodiesel plant to
Biokast Energy S.A. to be
installed in Tunis,
Tunisia.
04/18/2014
ABC
Announces Winners of First
Ever Biogas Project of the
Year
Awards
At its
second annual conference
last week, the American
Biogas Council (ABC)
announced awards in the
first ever Biogas
Projects of the Year in
four categories:
agricultural, municipal,
merchant, and
institutional.
04/18/2014
DOE Issues
Draft Loan Guarantee
Solicitation for Clean
Energy
Projects
The US
Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced a
draft loan guarantee
solicitation for
innovative renewable
energy and energy
efficiency projects
located in the U.S. that
avoid, reduce, or
sequester greenhouse
gases.
04/17/2014
British
Airways and Solena to Build
GreenSky Plasma Waste to Jet
Fuel
Plant
Washington
DC based Solena Fuels in
partnership with British
Airways has committed to
building the world’s
first facility to convert
landfill waste into jet
fuel.
04/17/2014
New Zealand
University Issues Open Call
for Biochar
Samples
The
International Biochar
Initiative (IBI) reports
that researchers at the
University of Waikato,
New Zealand, seek to
characterize the
effective heat treatment
temperature for
production of biochar.
04/16/2014
CCEMC
Announces Round One Winners
in Carbon Use
Competition
The
Alberta, Canada based
Change and Emissions
Management Corporation
(CCEMC) has announced 24
winners for the first
round of the $35 million
international 'Grand
Challenge: Innovative
Carbon Uses'.
04/16/2014
The Week's Action
Items
Due
05/01/2014: Concepts to DOE
for Upgrading Technologies
for
Biofuels
The US
Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced up to
$10 million in funding to
advance the production of
advanced biofuels,
substitutes for
petroleum-based
feedstocks, and
bioproducts made from
renewable, non-food-based
biomass, such as
agricultural residues and
woody biomass.
04/17/2014
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