Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
17, April 28,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
The
Petroleum Giants are
Talkin' Trash again about
the little guys who are
making alternative fuels.
Actually, we should take
that as a compliment. When
a B-league team shakes up
the Big Show, when the guys
who paid for the field are
nervous they might have to
share the spotlight, those
in the know start watching
the up-and-comers all the
more closely. That's the
current story with
conversion of waste and
biomass to alternative
fuels and chemicals - even
though today's production
totals can barely make a
dent in the incessant
global Need, it still
erodes the petro-sourced
market
share.
There's
Trash Talk going around
right now that the entire
process of making and using
biofuel is somehow dirtier
than making and using
petroleum based gasoline.
Dig into those shoddy
reports and we can quickly
see who is counting what.
Remember: what we don't
measure, we can't control -
so if your team wants to
trash talk the other team,
you flag around their
poorest specs, and keep
your own dirty laundry well
under wraps.
Yes, yes
- poor farming and
marketing practices can
mess up the Life Cycle
Analysis for the B-team's
first string, the ethanol
producers. If you
completely ignore the
pervasive global
destruction associated with
the oil and gas industry
and focus all the attention
on the worst way to grow
and sell corn, you get
headlines that read,
"Ethanol is worse than
Gasoline." That wouldn't
make much difference -
except that the public
seldom reads beyond those
headlines. Big Oil knows
all too well how that spin
game works and has plenty
of money to cast those
aspersions. "Oil Production
is cleaner than Ag
Residuals Conversion" - you
betcha.
Everything
in moderation, folks; we
humans have the capacity to
screw up even the best
effort. Any practice, any
technical platform, any
piece of equipment can be
run clean, or it can be run
dirty. Advances in
technology and methods
teach us how to make things
better. Those improvements
do come at a substantial
cost, and the need to
upgrade systems invariably
comes right when companies
are just starting to make a
buck on the older ways.
"First Generation" ethanol
plants get the job done,
but could stand some
improvement. Perhaps if
they had the scale of
subsidies still doled out
to the Oil barons, more of
our B-Team could afford to
use those effective enzyme
pre-treatments, and put in
those pricey corn-oil
separation
upgrades.
Thing is, despite being the
Alt Fuels B-Team, despite
getting meager handouts
compared to the lobby-force
of the global oil and gas
industry, biofuel
production is making
prime time
waves.
Hey
Rube!
It's encouraging when the Feds
do some of the necessary heavy
lifting for waste and biomass
conversion project development.
The Department of Energy's
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) in Golden,
Colorado has significantly
upgraded its open-access guide
to Standard
Procedures for Biomass
Compositional Analysis.
If you are attempting to
understand bioenergy
development, if you need to
figure out what testing is
necessary, NREL's worksheets
are the place to start.
Visit their updated Biomass
Analysis Technologies web
page to learn about
laboratory analytical
procedures and to better
understand the chemical
composition of raw biomass
feedstocks and process
intermediates for conversion
to biofuels. Nice work,
NREL;
thanks.
This Week's Top Story
W2 Energy's
Cambridge Waste Vegetable
Oil Biofuel Plant Begins
Production
Ontario,
Canada based W2 Energy,
Inc has announced that
the biofuel plant
installation at its
Cambridge facility is
beginning production.
04/25/2014
The
Week's News
California
Energy Commission Adopts
Electric Program Investment
Charge
The
California Energy
Commission (CEC) adopted
the Electric Program
Investment Charge (EPIC):
Proposed 2015-2017
Triennial Investment Plan
on April 22, 2014 at its
regularly scheduled board
meeting.
04/25/2014
Placer County Approves Biomass
Supply Contract for Cabin Creek
Facility
The
Placer County, California
Board of Supervisors at
its April 22, 2014
meeting approved a 10
year biomass fuel supply
agreement with Tahoe
Regional Power Company,
LLC (TRPC) for the
operation of the proposed
Cabin Creek Biomass
Facility (CCBF) near
Truckee.
04/24/2014
New Video Posted on UC Davis
Renewable Energy Anaerobic
Digester
A newly
released video of the
University of California,
Davis (UC Davis)
Renewable Energy
Anaerobic Digester (READ)
explains how their new
anaerobic digester is
designed to receive and
process 50 tons per day /
365 days per year of or
organic waste.
04/24/2014
CalRecycle Postpones Workshop
on Thermal Conversion of Waste
to
Energy
The
California Department of
Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle) has
announced that the
workshop on "Thermal
Resource Recovery: A
Pathway to the Highest
and Best Use of
Residuals" scheduled for
April 29, 2014 has been
postponed to time
uncertain.
04/23/2014
Virginia City Plant Has
Converted 1.1MM Tons of Waste
Coal to
Energy
Dominion
Virginia Power has
announced that its
Virginia City Hybrid
Energy Center in Wise
County has converted
nearly 1.1 million tons
of waste coal to energy
since beginning
commercial operation in
July 2012.
04/23/2014
Whole Foods
Will Convert Food Scraps to
Fertilizer with WISErg
Technology
Whole
Foods Market Bellevue and
Redmond, Washington based
WISErg Corporation have
announced an agreement to
deploy the WISErg
Harvester unit at the
Whole Foods Market in
Bellevue, Washington.
04/23/2014
Sustainable
Forest Thinning Can Lower
Fire Risk and Improve Forest
Health
The
Arizona branch of the
Nature Conservancy and
Arizona State
University's (ASU)
Sustainability Solutions
Services met last week
with PBS Arizona Horizons
to explore results of a
recent in-depth analysis
of how controlled forest
thinning can bring new
industries, reduced fire
risk, and result in
healthier forest to the
state.
04/21/2014
The Week's Action
Items
Due
05/20/2014: Statewide Wood
Energy Team Cooperative
Agreements
Due
06/03/2014: Hazardous Fuel
Wood to Energy (W2E) Grant
Applications
The USDA
Forest Service has
announced publishing two
funding opportunity
announcements (FOAs)
supporting planning,
acquisition, and clean
conversion to energy of
forest-sourced biomass
from National Forest
System lands.
04/24/2014
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