Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 1, January
5,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Everybody's been standing
around waist deep in - uh -
waste, just smiling and
enjoying the Holidaze, sipping
'Nog - then ol' Reality steps
through the door and says, "OK,
break's over - back on your
heads!"
It's a corny old joke, but you
get the point: time to gear up,
pay attention, and get back to
work. This is a time when the
Rules get published, the
roadmaps lay out the up-coming
grants and support programs,
and New and Improved policies
guess at proper governance.
Year-end reports spell out the
good, bad, and just plain
horrifying economics we've all
been struggling through - well,
at least it hasn't been ALL
bad. Societies are catching on
to the fact that they can turn
the crud that cost them plenty,
back into goods that makes them
money.
One broad shift in global
policy has been spot-lighting
waste conversion: the advent of
carbon trading, and low carbon
fuel standards. The western
states seem to be leading, yet
many regions' agencies are
following suit, implementing
the complex regulatory mess
handed to them by their
legislators over the last few
years. The primary metric for
assessing "lower carbon
footprints" is the Life Cycle
Assessment, where you dissect
feedstock-to-commodity pathways
and assign pluses and minuses
for the various component
impacts. It seems so clear: if
you convert a waste to fuel
instead of using virgin
materials, there isn't going to
be as big an impact. If carbon
& hydrogen laden stuff
already circulating in the
environment is used instead of
adding freshly dug-up fossil
hydrocarbons, the total
environmental cost is going to
be less. And if you want to be
able to repeat that
stuff-to-fuel cycle over and
over while keeping the impact
as low as possible, waste
conversion is the single most
sustainable way to make Low
Carbon Fuels.
There is a more subtle shift
associated with carbon /
climate wrangling that has
begun to actually make a
difference in developing
garbage-to-goods projects. With
full agency program
implementation, the private
developer's spreadsheets are
starting to include bankable
financial support derived from
off-setting the carbon impacts
of the Big Polluters -
certification of a low carbon
ranking is beginning to
generate actual, dependable
sources of Money. Not too long
ago, nobody dared to include
financial perks for low carbon
intensity efforts: if funds
came along, great, but you
certainly couldn't put that on
the project balance sheet.
Going into 2015, we believe
that this single change may
prove to be one of the more
dependable financial support
mechanisms available for the
clean conversion of
waste-sourced feedstock into
electrical power, transport
fuels, foundation chemicals,
and other key
commodities.
Still, a
project has to pencil; there
has to be sufficient feedstock
locked down, the site and its
environmental allowances must
be secure, and whatever the
products, there must be
contingent off-take agreements.
Financial tidbits such as those
that might come from off-set
protocols and tariffs just
improve the balance sheet. Yet
right now, clean waste
conversion project development
can use all the help it can
get.
Hey Rube!
One rather common way agencies
try to "help" waste conversion
development is to prohibit one
management practice in
preference for another, such as
banning food waste landfill
disposal. That's a two edged
sword: you need the alternative
conversion infrastructure well
established to not end up with
mounds of moldering muck along
the curb.
This Week's Extra
Reading
See our new
TERU Focus Report on
Plastic-Aluminum Packaging
Conversion that talks about
how University spin-off Enval
untangles this tough packaging
challenge.
This Week's Top Story
Carbon Cycle
Power Locks Down Spokane
Site for Waste-to-Value Demo
Unit
MPM Technologies, Inc
subsidiary Carbon Cycle Power
(CCP) has signed a lease
agreement with an affiliate of
Spokane Valley manufacturer
Wheeler Industries, Inc to
house the demonstration unit of
CCP’s waste-to-value
demonstration unit.
12/29/2014
The Week's News
Metro
Vancouver Now Requires Food
Waste to Be Separated from
Garbage
As of January 1, new rules are
in place requiring residents
and businesses in Metro
Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada to separate food waste
from regular garbage. Initial
enforcement will focus on large
generators of food waste like
supermarkets, major
restaurants, and hotels.
01/04/2015
CIGR Issues
Report on Global
Biomethanation Potential
From Food
Waste
The International Commission of
Agricultural and Biosystems
Engineering (CIGR, Commission
Internationale du Génie Rural)
has published "Global
Biomethanation Potential from
Food Waste - A Review".
01/03/2015
USDA
Publishes Final Rule for
Rural Energy for America
Program
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has
published the final rule for
its Rural Energy for America
Program (REAP) in the Federal
Register.
01/03/2015
Oregon DEQ
Documents Energy Savings,
GHG Benefits from Waste
Recovery
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) has
tracked the state’s waste
generation and recovery of
materials since 1992.
01/02/2015
CARB
Schedules Hearings on
Re-Adoption of LCFS,
Alternative Diesel
Regs
The California Air Resources
Board (CARB) has announced
public hearings before the
Board for the proposed adoption
of an updated Low Carbon Fuel
Standard (LCFS) and the
proposed adoption of a
regulation governing the
commercialization of motor
vehicle alternative diesel
fuels (ADF).
12/31/2014
The Week's Action
Items
Due
02/06/2015: Proposals to DOE
START for Strategic Energy
Plans in
Alaska
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) Office of Indian Energy
is currently accepting
applications for the third
round of the Alaska Strategic
Technical Assistance Response
Team (START) Program to assist
Alaska Native corporations and
federally recognized Alaska
Native governments with
accelerating clean energy
projects.
12/31/2014
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