Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
30, July 28,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Some
cities want to increase
Recycling in part by
implementing advanced Waste
Conversion for resource
recovery. That's a tall
order: there are LOTS of us
humans in big cities, and
we make an awful lot of
waste. Where to start? It
is rather commonly
acknowledged that when it
comes to planning for
City-level waste
conversion, "food waste is
the low-hanging fruit"
(gag). Yet managing that
muck is a challenging task
bringing problems that the
City has not had to cope
with before, perhaps
haven't even thought of
yet. Here's your first
clue: when Municipal Solid
Waste (MSW) is all mixed
together the dry grunge
pretty much absorbs the
liquid from the wet goo -
but separate out that food
waste and you have some
seriously sloppy soup to
serve.
One way
to set up food waste
collection is to give
everyone a bucket with a
lid. Residents just need a
small bucket; a five gallon
pale will do. Restaurants
need much more capacity,
like a large plastic trash
can with a good snap-shut
lid, all on rollers. Start
talking to the
Supermarkets, you find they
are pushing over a ton of
food waste out the back
door every single
day. Those 40 cubic
yard metal roll-offs
already seep slurry onto
the back tarmac; for
separated food waste, you
are going to need something
a lot more leak-proof. Then
there are the food
processing plants - their
tossed daily tonnage can be
pretty
horrifying.
Now let's
tackle some of the details.
On the negative side: the
City's contracted solid
waste haulers (a) are not
going to be too keen on
reducing their tonnage,
since they are paid by the
ton collected and delivered
to the dump, (b) they will
need new rigs, set up for
wet goo, and (c) the food
waste pick-up routes will
need to be different than
when you are just grabbing
every bin along the curb.
On the positive
side, we see examples of
food distribution centers
heating and powering their
entire complex and
making enough biogas to
fuel their fleet of trucks.
The same economics have to
apply to the haulers and
their fuel-hungry trucks,
and to the materials
recovery facilities
(MRFs).
The
vessels within which one
feeds the ground-up slurry
of food waste to
biogas-making microbes are
called appropriately enough
"Digesters" and they come
in all scales from
back-yard barrels to
monstrous tank farms. You
can put a City-bred
Digester right in next to a
food distribution center.
You can set up a
stand-alone system, like
the high-solids anaerobic
digester units proposed
by the City of Napa.
You can also amp-up
digesters at your local
wastewater treatment
plant. Poop, after all,
is food that has already
been digested;
not much left for the
bugs to make into
biogas. The trick is to
size the digester to the
amount of local
food waste so you don't
have to truck it very
far, and can get that
mess into an Anaerobic
Digester before it
finishes the process on
its own - to our great
disappointment and
disgust.
Hey
Rube!
We all watch
as companies apply for and
sometimes receive grants from
state and federal agencies.
Yeah! They got $3 million! But
what happens after that? It can
take months to negotiate
the release of funds, and who
will remember that grant award
by the time the bucks are in
the bank? We are trying to
track the progress from a grant
award to first use of funds,
and find this is a relatively
unknown process. If you are
lucky enough to get a grant,
let us know how you fare in the
coming stretch, and we'll help
carry the tale out to others
that need to know.
Welcome our New
Sponsor!
Meo & Associates
is a turnkey
environmental services company
with proven environmental
project experience and a solid
reputation for customer
service. Founded in 1990, the
company gained its outstanding
reputation by providing
reliable and efficient
industrial services to
commercial clients in southern
California.
Find out
how
you can become a sponsor
too!
Vote for Teru Talk!
We have
reached the next stage of the
competition in the Entrepreneurs
Showcase thanks to you!
Teru will be at Tee Two at
the Serrano Golf Course
today, promoting Teru Talk
to potential investors as
they participate in the 5th
Annual Entrepreneurial Drive
Golf Tournament. Yes, they
will be
voting!
We are in this competition to
grow and to continue our
support of waste conversion.
Check out Teru's video, and
then Vote
for Teru Talk!
Ballot box stuffing is
encouraged and much
appreciated! Voting is
tax-deductible and it only
costs a dollar per
vote.
This Week's Top Story
Carbotech
Contracts to Construct
Biogas Upgrading Plant
in
Stockholm
German
company Schmack Carbotech
GmbH has been awarded a
contract to construct a
biogas
upgrading plant with
a processing capacity of
2000 Nm3/h in Sofielund
Huddinge, Stockholm,
Sweden.
07/24/2014
The
Week's News
CEC Proposes
$3MM Award for City of Napa
Anaerobic Digestion
Project
The City
of Napa, California, was
among 11 proposed awards
announced under Round 2
of the California Energy
Commission’s (CEC) Grant
Solicitation PON-13-609
for Pilot-Scale and
Commercial-Scale Advanced
Biofuels Production
Facilities.
07/27/2014
ElectraTherm's
Green Machines Converting
Waste Heat to Power in
Canada
Nevada
based ElectraTherm has
announced that two Green
Machines are now
converting waste heat to
power at a natural gas
compression station in
Cessford, Alberta,
Canada.
07/25/2014
Altranex Is
Finalist in 5th Annual
Defense Energy Technology
Challenge
Ontario,
Canada based Altranex
Corp. has announced that
it has been selected as
one of the finalists in
the 5th Annual Defense
Energy Technology
Challenge (DETC) program
as part of the Asia
Pacific Clean Energy
Summit that will be held
in Honolulu, Hawai’i on
September 15-17, 2014.
07/25/2014
Sainsbury’s
Secures First Commercial
Green Loan for Environmental
Projects
United
Kingdom based J Sainsbury
plc has announced
that it has agreed to a
£200 million corporate
‘green’ loan to invest in
on-going carbon reduction
and sustainability
projects.
07/24/2014
Pöyry
Awarded EPCM Contract for
Millar Western Bioenergy
Pulp Mill
Project
Finland
based Pöyry has announced
that it has been awarded
a contract by Millar
Western Forest Products
Ltd. for engineering,
procurement and
construction management
(EPCM) services for an
anaerobic bioenergy
project at the Whitecourt
pulp mill in Alberta,
Canada.
07/24/2014
JPMorgan
Chase Investing $30 Million
in Entrepreneur
Networks
JPMorgan
Chase & Co. has
launched Small Business
Forward
℠
, a five-year, $30 million
grant program to boost small
business support networks that
help growing enterprises in
specific industries.
07/23/2014
Global
Bioenergies Delivers
Fermentation Pilot Plant to
Pomacle,
France
France
based Global Bioenergies
has announced delivery of
its bio-isobutene
fermentation unit and
associated devices to
Pomacle for trials.
07/23/2014
B&W
Vølund Signs $80MM Contract
to Build Biomass Power Plant
in
Denmark
The
Babcock & Wilcox
Company (B&W) has
announced that Babcock
& Wilcox Vølund A/S
(B&W Vølund) has been
awarded a contract for
more than $80 million to
build a 280
megawatt-thermal (MWth)
biomass boiler system for
the Skærbækværket power
plant near Fredericia,
Denmark.
07/23/2014
CEC
Announces Round 2 Awards for
Advanced Biofuels Production
Facilities
The
California Energy
Commission (CEC) has
released a Notice of
Proposed Award for Round
2 of the grant
solicitation for
Pilot-Scale and
Commercial-Scale Advanced
Biofuels Production
Facilities (PON-13-609).
07/21/2014
USDA Awards
Funds for Development of
Rural Wood to Energy
Projects
The US
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has announced the
award of more than $2.5
million in grants to
develop wood energy teams
in 11 states and an
additional $1.25 million
for nine wood energy
projects.
07/21/2014
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