Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 31, August
3,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"TerĂº")
Teru's Trash Talk
It's good to do an occasional
sanity check, a status report
as we push forward. Someone
asked recently, "What is the
"State of the Art" when it
comes to Waste Conversion? Is
it a particular technology, a
combination of systems, or the
way they are deployed? We can
envision inter-connected clean
conversion of waste into raw
materials. Are we there
yet?"
We built this cat-bird seat we
fondly call Teru Talk to
monitor, highlight, inform, and
urge along the changes in the
Waste Conversion for Resource
Recovery world. We have seen
more than enough slip-sliding
away over the last few years;
now, we are starting to see
some significant forward
progress. In any race there are
front-runners that set the pace
and mark the progress. What are
the leading trends? Where are
we surging ahead? We think that
globally, the leaders of the
pack all show some recognizable
common
characteristics:
Resource
Recovery Parks - Multiple
Feedstock, Process,
Output
These integrated complexes are
not necessarily made to fit
within strict municipal
boundaries, but rather they are
scaled to the functional
community in which they
operate.
-
They coordinate the
gathering and
cleaning, and the
distribution for
re-use where
possible. They
manage the
conversion and they
provide raw
materials for local
remanufacturing.
-
Diverse operations
rely on an
integrated control
with common
infrastructure
tools, while
remaining flexible
to changes in
available input and
required output of
their
region.
-
The parks manage
both core
conversion
technologies and
"bolt-on" ancillary
sub-systems
necessary for
optimal waste
conversion,
resource recovery,
and
re-utilization.
-
The best
of these regional
parks can absorb
just about any kind
of local discard,
sort it, clean and
pre-treat it, and
send it along to
whatever
technologies are
best at taking that
particular kind of
crud apart and
turning it back
into raw
resources.
-
And almost without
exception, they
involve a close
collaboration
between the
community at large,
the multiple
industries, and the
oversight agencies
in a true
public-private
partnership.
And yes,
globally we are seeing flagship
resource recovery hubs spring
up. They start small and slowly
grow into their respective
communities. Society is making
noticeable progress in the
mundane hands-on work of
intercepting what it has always
just thrown away and learning
better ways to re-route all
that stuff back into the local,
regional, and global flow of
materials. This goal is called
the Circular Economy, and we
all are aiming for a world with
Zero Waste. Can this be
possible? Well, yeah: if
all the discards
get unmade and returned to the
Circle, there really wouldn't
be any waste any more. But at
the very best we've learned to
recover between 40 and maybe 60
percent what gets tossed. That
means we're about half way
there.
Hey Rube!
Look
through the News and think
about how the pieces can fit
within this larger
work-in-progress puzzle. Many
companies are working on
ancillary subsystems; they need
to rely on someone else’s
infrastructure to improve the
economics. Agencies continue to
pick out favorites, but are
seeking guidance in forming
support for “Advanced Energy
Community” concepts. Big, big
companies are signing on to use
lots of waste-sourced goods.
And encouragingly,
collaboration between public
and private interests is making
a good, strong showing. We’re
getting
there.
This Week's Top Story
SSE,
Wheelabrator's Commercial
Ferrybridge Multifuel Power
Plant Starts
Up
The Ferrybridge Multifuel 1
(FM1) project, a 50:50 joint
venture project between SSE and
Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.,
has successfully completed its
commissioning phase and has now
entered full commercial
operation.
07/31/2015
The Week's News
Renewable
Energy Group to Acquire
Imperium Renewables
Assets
Iowa based Renewable Energy
Group, Inc (REG) and Imperium
Renewables, Inc announced that
they have signed an asset
purchase agreement where REG
would acquire substantially all
the assets of Imperium.
08/01/2015
EPA
Schedules August 13th
Webinar on 2015-2016 SBIR
Solicitation
The US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has scheduled an
informational webinar on EPA’s
2015-2016 SBIR Phase I
solicitation for August 13
2015, from 2:00 to 3:00pm,
Eastern Daylight Time.
08/01/2015
DECC
Releases 2014 Digest of
United Kingdom Energy
Statistics
The United Kingdom Department
for Energy & Climate Change
(DECC) has released their
annual Digest of United Kingdom
Energy Statistics (DUKES).
07/31/2015
Global
Bioenergies' Bio-Isobutene
Process Hits 70% of
Commercial
Yield
French company Global
Bioenergies has announced that
its Bio-Isobutene process has
reached 70% of the commercial
yield at R&D scale.
07/30/2015
UPS
Announces 3 New Renewable
Fuels Agreements for Up to
46M
Gallons
United Parcel Service of
America, Inc (UPS) has
announced agreements for up to
46 million gallons of renewable
fuels over the next three
years, constituting a 15-fold
increase over prior contracts
and making UPS one of the
largest users of renewable
diesel in the world.
07/30/2015
Bank of
America Announces $125
Billion Environmental
Business
Initiative
Bank of America has pledged to
increase the company's current
environmental business
initiative from $50 billion to
$125 billion in low-carbon
business by 2025 through
lending, investing, capital
raising, advisory services, and
developing financing solutions
for clients around the world.
07/30/2015
Greenleaf
Finalizes Acquisition of
Plainfield's Power Plant in
Connecticut
California based Greenleaf
Power announced that it has
finalized the purchase of the
Plainfield Renewable Energy
Plant located in Plainfield,
Connecticut from Leidos, Inc,
which has owned and operated
the plant since it became
operational.
0729/2015
DOE to Issue
Funding Opportunity for
Clean Energy Projects on
Indian
lands
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) Office of Indian Energy
Policy and Programs (Office of
Indian Energy) has announced
that it intends to issue a
Funding Opportunity
Announcement entitled
"Deployment of Clean Energy and
Energy Efficiency Projects on
Indian Lands".
07/29/2015
New Holland
Partners with State
University of New York on
Biomass
Research
New Holland Agriculture has
announced plans to assist State
University of New York (SUNY)
researchers in a project that
seeks to develop ways to reduce
the cost of delivering biomass
for refinement.
07/27/2015
Xebec's
First Chinese Landfill Gas
Upgrading Project Has Begun
Deliveries
Montreal based Xebec Adsorption
Inc has announced that it has
commenced operation of its
first commercial landfill gas
to CNG upgrading system with
deliveries to taxi fleets in
Anshan, North Eastern China.
07/27/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
08/14/2015: Comments on CEC
RFP for Advanced Energy
Communities
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) is developing
a competitive grant
solicitation for the
development and deployment of
Advanced Energy Communities.
07/29/2015
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