Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 4, January
26,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
When
California's governor told
CalRecycle a few years ago that
he wanted a
feedstock driven,
technology neutral
approach
to clean waste conversion, he
sure didn't add - except for
those nasty
thermal
technologies. Uh, so
where's the progress? Yeah,
that's what we
thought.
California's been used to
leading progress, not lagging
behind: the view from the front
is always better. The Air Board
that has been swimming upstream
for years, setting the global
standard for responsible,
sustainable conversion of
low-value stuff into
high-value, low-carbon fuels.
The state's Energy Commission
takes very seriously their
charge to guide the clean
conversion of biomass and even
municipal solid waste into, you
guessed it, Energy. One look at
their most recent Notice of
Proposed Awards assures their
commitment.
Teru Talk provides a catbird
seat for watching real-time
global waste conversion. What
we serve up shows that our
societies are learning to
smartly integrate diverse
garbage-to-goods technology
platforms into their regional
resource economy. What we
do not
see
worldwide is the off-handed
rejection of thermally based
waste conversion as being part
of that tool-set. We aren't
talking about the proliferation
of monstrous old style
incinerators. Although the
new-age big burners do seem to
have their place in the
infrastructure, frankly we are
more interested in
molecular
recovery
than
destruction, with or
without efficient
utilization of the heat
they generate - but
that's just us.
Thankfully, we see all
levels of heat being
applied to every sort of
discarded material to
good effect. Where this
is proving successful
over the long haul, there
is an agency responsible
for carefully
constructing and
maintaining an
"environmental sanity"
net ensuring things are
done right. That's what a
Waste Management Agency
is supposed
to
do,
right?
Californians should fully
expect, nay
demand
, the
California Department of
Recycling and Resource Recovery
(you know 'em as CalRecycle) to
be the embodiment of
science-driven waste management
guidance. The agency is well
equipped to investigate,
verify, guide, and support
multi-technology implementation
for the recovery of resources
from what everyone continues to
throw away. What have we gotten
over the last decade? "We'll
permit conversion of waste into
useful goods, as long as you
don't propose to use anything
that operates over body
temperature."
Twenty years ago environmental
protection focused people rose
up and forced an international
remake of the Waste Incinerator
industrial framework. Honestly,
when you look at the poor
performance of those old-school
burners, the painful process
was necessary. The mass-burn
tools now used globally are
orders of magnitude cleaner.
All well and good - but the
residual mind-set against
anything using heat to break
down clumps of molecules has
out-lasted its usefulness, and
now interferes with attaining
the very goal of environmental
sanity and cleanliness. Those
erstwhile enviro-soldiers
relied on Science to prove the
error and change their world.
We need to honor that stance,
and again demand that our waste
management agency "leaders"
also follow Science, and set
their course according to their
governor's directive: Implement
feedstock driven, technology
neutral waste conversion for
resource
recovery.
Hey Rube!
When you
go all the way back to the
state's Renewables Portfolio
Standard (RPS) you find that
the Public Utilities Commission
charged its implementation to
both the Energy
Commission
and
CalRecycle. High time
our
other
RPS
agency stepped up to
bat.
This Week's Extra
Reading
Teru
talks
about his Entrepreneur's
Boot Camp experience last
month and shares the
video of
his final pitch at Demo
Day..
This Week's Top Story
Green
Biologics Secures $76M to
Deliver 1st Commercial US
Plant
United Kingdom based Green
Biologics (GBL) has announced
that it has raised $76 million
in debt and equity financing,
positioning the company to
deliver its first modern
commercial plant in the US.
01/21/2015
The Week's News
CEC Releases
Notices of Proposed Awards
for Distributed Gen,
Bioenergy
The California Energy
Commission (CEC) has posted two
Notices of Proposed Awards
(NPOAs) for PON-14-303,
"Advancing Cleaner, Less
Costly, More Reliable
Distributed Generation to
Enable Customer Solutions and
Zero-Net Energy Communities",
and PON-14-305, Electric
Program Investment Charge,
Demonstrating Bioenergy
Solutions That Support
California's Industries, the
Environment, and the Grid.
01/24/2015
ABC Presents
Upcoming Webinar on
Reinventing Biogas
Financing
The American Biogas Council
(ABC) has announced a webinar
scheduled for January 28, 2015
on the subject of "Reinventing
Biogas Financing".
01/23/2015
ANDRITZ
Provides Woodyard Equipment
to Two US Biomass Pellet
Plants
Austria headquartered ANDRITZ
has announced receipt of an
order from Maryland, US based
Enviva to supply woodyard
equipment, engineering, and
field services for two biomass
pellet plants in Ahoskie and
Northampton, North Carolina.
01/23/2015
St. Landry
Parish Approves $2.8M
Landfill Gas to Biofuel
Expansion
The St. Landry Parish Solid
Waste District in Louisiana has
announced its approval of
expansion of the Opelousas
Landfill biogas to biofuel
conversion plant during their
regular meeting last month.
01/22/2015
New
Remanufacturing Research Hub
Opens in
Scotland
The Scottish Institute for
Remanufacture officially opened
today (January 21) with a
mission to help grow
remanufacturing businesses in
Scotland and to develop an
international research
institute.
01/21/2015
Edeniq
Secures $16 Million in
Funding for Cellulosic Sugar
Production
California based Edeniq, Inc
has announced that it has
raised more than $16 million in
equity to support the roll-out
of its PATHWAY™ Platform, which
increases ethanol yield at
existing plants by three to six
percent through a more complete
conversion of starch and
cellulosic corn kernel fiber
into ethanol.
01/21/2015
US EPA
Approves Algenol Fuels for
Renewable Fuel
Standard
Florida based Algenol, LLC has
announced certification by the
US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) of its process for
producing advanced biofuels,
meeting the Greenhouse Gas
(GHG) reduction requirements
under the Renewable Fuels
Standard (RFS).
01/20/2015
Methes
Energies Receives $4M
Upfront for Biodiesel
Technology
License
Las Vegas based Methes Energies
International Ltd has announced
the non-exclusive licensing of
its modular biodiesel
production design to an
un-named US company.
01/20/2015
The Week's Action
Items
Due
03/18/2015: Peak Capacity
Power Proposals to APS in
Arizona
Arizona Public Service Company
(APS) has announced that it
will release a Request for
Proposals (RFP) for
dispatchable capacity to meet
peak capacity demand.
01/22/2015
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