Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
20, May 19,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Instant
information isn't fast
enough these days.
Letter-writing has become a
lost art, emails give way
to texting and even the 140
characters of a Tweet often
seem too wordy. The rate of
change is accelerating and
the noise of the data storm
we struggle within is
reaching a crescendo. And
from all this, we try to
extract and assimilate
meaningful information. We
want answers and we want
'em now - but when Truth
isn't conveniently
available on a moment's
notice, we make do with
whatever explanation comes
along in time.
Ask
somebody, anybody how they
are: "Oh, just fine, I
suppose" and with that
expected reply you are on
your way. A dentist asks
his patient how that old
tooth is holding up, and
the answer with a flinch is
"OK, today." Our old jalopy
is making a new grinding
clatter and our mechanic
smiles and says "No
problem." Is it any wonder
then that when we attempt
to glean crucial details of
a new technology by asking
the vendor how their system
works, we get those same
assurances and platitudes?
Not lying, exactly - just
saying what you wanted to
hear.
A
community spends months,
often years gathering the
courage and funds to
attempt a new approach to
waste management, to see if
perhaps there are New Tools
that can cleanly divert
their local discards away
from disposal and toward
resource recovery. The
community puts out a
Request for Proposals
(those in the know call
them RFPs) and receives
back what? If they are
lucky, they get six to ten
responses. Cursory
examination tells them that
three of the systems are
too large, and two are too
small. But the last vendor
absolutely assures them
that their approach is Just
Right. OK: we must
have spent enough time and
money on this by
now.
A friend
can keep an eye on a friend
over the years. A good
doctor knows he needs his
patient's history to really
tell what's going on. A top
mechanic will want to see
that jalopy's maintenance
record. The swarm of
web-enabled information
that gives us news of
everything everywhere now
also allows us to peer into
the past of the key people,
the international
companies, technologic
platforms, and the resource
recovery projects they
deploy. Everyone now has
the unique and often quite
disturbing ability to look
back down the timeline and
to reconstruct the past.
It's all out there, if you
can winnow the wheat from
the chaff.
As with
all powerful tools, we can
see clear evidence of
rampant abuse of this New
and Improved window on our
lives, misuse by our
governments, by the large
corporate sales machines,
and sometimes most
violating, person-to-person
identify theft. Yet like so
many things, we also now
have the ability to use
these powerful tools for
societal good. Whatever
station you hold in life,
it is much harder to hide
these days and that can be
both good and
bad.
Hey
Rube!
The problem
is no longer a lack of
pertinent information, but that
far, far too much detail is
readily available at any one
time, about anything and
everything. A good tool to
apply to this quandary is the
"database" - and today's
versions are almost
unrecognizable compared to what
constituted data management
software just a decade ago.
Teru Talk attempts to filter
that flood and organize the
detail for the long view, and
we are busily checking out
these new fangled database
gismos to help organizing about
3,000 global waste conversion
related profiles that we
currently maintain. If you
speak Database and can give us
a leg up, please say so
…
This Week's Top Story
FLI Energy
Breaks Ground on Fraddon
Anaerobic Digestion
Plant
The
United Kingdom (UK) based
non-profit Anaerobic
Digestion and Biogas
Association (ADBA)
reports that FLI Energy
has begun construction of
the Fraddon biogas plant,
a biomethane to grid
anaerobic digestion (AD)
project located in
Fraddon, Cornwall.
05/15/2014
The
Week's News
Vander Haak
Dairy in Washington State
Wins Renewable Energy
Award
Vander
Haak Dairy, the first
dairy to install a
digester in Washington
State (2004), has
received the Outstanding
Achievement in Renewable
Energy Award from the
Innovation Center for
U.S. Dairy as part of its
3rd Annual U.S. Dairy
Sustainability Awards.
05/15/2014
Licensing
Offered for Catalyst for Low
Temperature Combustion of
Methane
Dr.
Radoslaw Rudz, head of
the Innovation team at
Jagiellonian University
in Kraków, Poland, has
notified Teru Talk that
research into development
of a catalyst for low
temperature combustion of
low-heat value methane is
now being offered for
technology transfer and
licensing for commercial
application.
05/15/2014
Asia Biomass
Office Reports on Successful
Trials for Bio-Coke
Production
The Asia
Biomass Energy Promotion
Office, part of Japan's
New Energy Foundation,
has announced that
successful collaboration
between Kinki University
and Osaka Gas Engineering
can now scale up
commercial production of
"Bio-Coke", a new form of
solid fuel produced from
Malaysian oil palm
residual wastes.
05/14/2014
AEE Has 40
Answers to EPA Carbon Rules,
Including Waste
Conversion
The US
non-profit organization
Advanced Energy Economy
(AEE) has released the
open-access report
"Advanced Energy
Technologies for
Greenhouse Gas Reduction"
to provides details on
the use, application, and
benefits of 40 specific
advanced energy
technologies and
services.
05/14/2014
UK DECC
Seeks Comments on
Governmental Support for
Renewable
Energy
The
United Kingdom (UK)
Department of Energy
& Climate Change
(DECC) has issued a call
for stakeholder
Consultations intended to
ensure proper return of
value and long-term
maintenance of the
government's investment
in support of renewable
energy.
05/14/2014
TERI
Proposes Sustainable
Development Agenda for New
Indian
Government
As the
entire country of India
prepares for a change in
leadership, the New Delhi
based non-profit
organization The Energy
and Resources Institute
(TERI) has offered a
concise 10-page proposed
agenda for the incoming
administration, entitled
"The Cost of
Developmental Inaction."
05/13/2014
Alliance for
Green Heat Reviews Comments
to EPA's NSPS for Wood
Stoves
The US
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is revising
New Source Performance
Standards (NSPS) that
apply to combustion of
wood and wood-derived
fuels.
05/12/2014
The Week's Action
Items
Due
05/27/2014: Proposals to
Minnesota for CHP
Stakeholder
Process
The
Minnesota Department of
Commerce’s (Commerce) has
issued Requests for
Proposals (RFPs) in the
area of combined heat and
power (CHP) in order to
focus on more specific
policy details and
recommendations.
05/12/2014
Due
06/10/2014: Phase 1 SBIR
Proposals to National
Science
Foundation
Due
06/11/2014: Phase 1 STTR
Proposals to National
Science
Foundation
The
National Science
Foundation (NSF) has
begun accepting Phase 1
proposals toward the
Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR) and
Small Business
Technology Transfer
(STTR) programs.
05/13/2014
Due
07/07/2014: Applications to
USDA for Rural Renewable
Energy
Grants
Due
07/31/2014: Applications to
USDA for Loan
Guarantees
The US
Department of Agriculture
(USDA), Rural Energy for
America Program (REAP)
has published a Notice of
Funding Availability
(NOPA) and is now
accepting applications
for financial assistance
for grants, guaranteed
loans, and combined
grants and loans for the
development and
construction of renewable
energy systems and for
energy efficiency
improvement projects.
05/12/2014
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