Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 41, October
19,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Maintained Availability is a
metric important to almost
every processing effort. It
described the percentage of
time a system keeps running,
keeps operating, keeps doing
whatever it is that you depend
upon. When faced with a
never-ending flow of stuff
coming at you that needs to be
processed and served up,
Downtime is always difficult.
Downtime is also unavoidable;
nothing that Man cooks up keeps
running constantly without a
break in the action once in
awhile.
When you are dealing with trash
management, that constant flow
doesn't quit just because a
whats-it in your magic trash
discombobulator comes unhinged.
If your capacity to Do
Something with that trash
tsunami doesn't come back on
line pretty fast, you'll
literally bury yourself in your
work. If you are trying to
select a Whats-it to install,
the percentage of run-time you
can depend upon per year is as
important as the amount of crud
it processes per hour.
Maintenance costs, but downtime
costs more. So we count the
availability, given all the
necessary maintenance, and call
that percentage the "maintained
availability". It even has its
own kind of
insurance.
It's nice to have a spare
whats-it that can kick in if
the main unit craps out, but
that is a characteristic luxury
of larger operations. Small
enterprise is usually lucky to
have one of the main what-evers
to do the job, so the trend
toward smaller and more
distributed waste conversion
suffers more from lower
maintained availability than
the monster processors. But
then when you are processing a
few tons a day, things don’t
back up as quick as when you
must cope with many thousands
of tons a day. There are always
trade-offs.
Stuff Happens
Teru Talk celebrated our Five
Year Anniversary last month,
having posted our first news
item to this web service in
September 2010. We've kicked
out a newsletter every week
during that entire time and all
strictly with our own
Operations and Maintenance,
never having a week go by
without serving up Waste
Conversion News to our faithful
global readership. 5 years
times 52 weeks = 260 issues
packed full of carefully
selected Waste Conversion
specific news, each edition
with its own Trash Talk and Hey
Rube! Five years at 100%
maintained
availability.
But stuff happens, eventually.
Last week saw a hard drive
crash that took out our web
publication software, dead on
the e-vine. We finally got
everything up and running again
on our own in-house expertise …
making it once again possible
to process and package the News
in time for today … but we
missed one. Last week's issue
just didn't happen. For those
kind and selfless readers who
thought they might have
accidentally pushed their own
Delete button: no, this was our
bad. Sorry 'bout that. So all
of last week's news is crammed
in with this week's
edition.
But c'mon: missing one
newsletter issue in over five
years means we've managed way
better than 99% maintained
availability. Whether
converting Trash or News, 99% +
is bankable.
Hey Rube!
Be sure to mark your calendar
for November 4-5 and plan to
attend this year's 10th annual
California Bioresources
Alliance symposium. The
get-together will be staged in
the main auditorium of the
Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board HQ in
Rancho Cordova, near
Sacramento. Teru is a speaker
in Dr. Steve Kaffka's session
on Compost, Co-Digestion, and
Biochar on the first day,
droning on about federal and
international standards for
Biochar, and then moderating a
Biochar panel of actual
specialists on the second day.
See our Event
notice, and check out
the UC Davis and EPA Region
9 (co-hosts of the
symposium) web announcements
while you're
there.
This Week's Extra
Reading
SURCP
Releases New Biochar Report
for Forest Restoration in
Western
US
Oregon-based Wilson Biochar
Associates (WBA) has prepared
an article for the South Umpqua
Rural Community Partnership
(SURCP) entitled, "Biochar for
Forest Restoration in the
Western United States".
10/16/2015
This Week's Top Story
University
of Utah Researchers Create
LEDs from Food and Beverage
Waste
Two University of Utah
researchers have found a way to
create light emitting diodes
(LEDs) from food and beverage
waste.
10/15/2015
The Week's News
Neste's
NEXBTL Renewable Diesel
Powers City of Oakland's
Vehicles
The City of Oakland, California
began filling up its vehicles
with Neste's NEXBTL renewable
diesel at the beginning of
October 2015 in order to reduce
the emissions of their
municipal fleet.
10/16/2015
WRAP to Map
Out Critical Raw Materials
Recovery From Electrical
Products
The United Kingdom (UK) based
Waste & Resources Action
Programme (WRAP) will partner
with the Knowledge Transfer
Network (KTN), Wuppertal
Institute, European Recycling
Platform (ERP UK Ltd), and the
European Advanced Recycling
Network (EARN) for a new
project, which has received
€2.1m Euros from European Union
(EU) Life funding.
10/15/2015
Viridor Is
Preferred Bidder on £700m
Clyde Valley Residual Waste
Project
Viridor has been selected as
preferred bidder for the £700
million Clyde Valley Residual
Waste project in Scotland.
10/15/2015
Linde Group
Opens Pilot Plant for Dry
Reformer Synthesis Gas
Production
The Linde Group has announced
the official opening of its
Linde Pilot Reformer research
and development facility at
Pullach near Munich.
10/15/2015
AVA
Cleanphos Pilot Will Recover
Phosphorus from Sewage
Sludge
Swiss company AVA-CO2 is
receiving support from the
Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
DBU (German Federal
Environmental Foundation) to
further develop a new process
to extract phosphorus from
HTC-coal produced from
municipal sewage sludge at its
AVA cleanphos pilot plant in
Karlsruhe, Germany.
10/12/2015
Monterey
County Selects BHS to
Furnish Multi-Line
MRF
The Monterey Regional Waste
Management District (MRWMD) in
California has selected Oregon
based Bulk Handling Systems
(BHS) to design, manufacture,
and install its new Materials
Recovery Facility (MRF).
10/12/2015
Outotec
Awarded Three Energy from
Waste Contracts in UK and
Canada
Finland based Outotec Oyj has
been awarded three technology
and service contracts totaling
EUR 55 million by different
renewable energy producers in
the UK and Canada.
10/12/2015
Covestro and
Reverdia Partner for
Plastics from Renewable Raw
Materials
Covestro, formerly Bayer
MaterialScience, and Reverdia
have reached an agreement to
jointly develop and promote
thermoplastic polyurethanes
(TPU) based on renewable raw
materials.
10/08/2015
Veolia to
Manage Belgian Eco-Energy's
New Biomass Power Plant in
Ghent
Belgian Eco-Energy (BEE) has
awarded a 15-year contract to
Veolia operate one of the
largest biomass power plants in
Europe, which will be built on
the international port of
Ghent.
10/08/2015
Infracapital
Launches Investment Platform
for Biomass and EfW Plants
in
UK
Infracapital has announced the
launch of the Bioenergy
Infrastructure Group (BIG), a
platform established to invest
in the construction of biomass
and Energy from Waste (EfW)
plants in the United Kingdom
(UK).
10/06/2015
BioAmber
Sarnia Producing
Bio-Succinic Acid and
Shipping to
Customers
BioAmber Inc has announced that
its Sarnia joint venture with
Mitsui & Co. Ltd has begun
shipping bio-succinic acid to
customers and is operating its
manufacturing process at
commercial scale, meeting a
significant company milestone.
10/06/2015
Stora Enso's
Sunila Mill in Finland Is
Now Running Valmet
LignoBoost
Plant
Finland based Valmet has
completed the handover process
of the LignoBoost lignin
separation plant at Stora Enso
Biomaterial's Sunila mill.
10/06/2015
United
Kingdom's New National
Infrastructure Commission to
Address
Energy
The government of the United
Kingdom (UK) has announced a
four-point plan to spur
nation-wide infrastructure
development, especially in
housing, transportation, and
energy.
10/05/2015
Aeromexico
Signs Agreement with MEXICO2
Carbon Trading
Platform
Mexico's global airline
Aeromexico has announced a
partnership with the country's
leading independent carbon
trading platform MEXICO2.
0/05/2015
PUC Approves
Pacific Biodiesel Contract
with Hawaiian
Electric
Pacific Biodiesel Technologies
(PBT) has announced that the
Hawaiian Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) has approved
their contract with Hawaiian
Electric for supply of
biodiesel for Oahu power
generators.
10/05/2015
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