Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 49,
December 14,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Climate Change! Climate
Change!
Every
body’s talkin’
the talk. Some are even
walking the walk. Paris
COP21 shifted gears a
bit, focusing needed
attention on short-term
instead of long-term
atmospheric pollutants.
What, you may ask, are
these Short Term
Pollutants of which they
speak? Glad you
asked…
First, it’s the amount of time
that nasty gaseous and
particulate things stay
circulating in the air that
determines short versus long
term pollution. Super-fine
carbon dust stays up there
like,
for
ever
,
while more complex
molecules tend to do
their dirty bit and break
down. Chief target among
those obnoxious and
choking exhaust-sourced
baddies: Methane.
Molecularly, that’s CH4 -
a carbon atom stuck to
four hydrogen atoms. Pop
that sucker with enough
energy and oxygen and it
comes apart into carbon
dioxide, carbon monoxide,
and water. Keep stirring
and changing up air-borne
methane and those bits
recombine into the really
nasty stuff some of us
grew up with, stuff that
for decades we choked
over and cursed as
SMOG.
Big surprise: there is more
crud in the air in poorer
communities than in wealthier
neighborhoods. Did somebody
decide to dump the bad stuff on
poor folk? Not necessarily -
it’s just that emission-laden
air in industrially zoned areas
goes right along with cheaper
in-fill housing,
exhaust-spewing trucks course
along freeway routes that cut
through ghettos, and low-income
communities congregate in areas
with lower rent - and bad air.
That’s euphemistically called
Environmental Justice. If you
have the money, you wouldn’t
choose to live
there.
Methane may be short-lived, but
it doesn’t just go away. While
CH4 molecules are still stuck
together and up there in
circulation, they do their own
damage, and that crud is
poisonous. Then it changes its
disguise and come back nastier
than ever. “Clean” Natural Gas
is mostly methane, oh, and a
few minor carcinogens but who’s
counting. The bubbles that come
up out of a bucket of rotting
food waste goo are mostly
methane. The gases that escape
from a landfill are full of
methane. The back end of a cow
is a good place to find
methane, just don’t stand too
close.
At COP21, the assembled masses
learned encouragingly that this
simple, deadly, short-lived
pollutant methane is also one
of the most useful little
molecular resources we could
possibly capture and recover.
With a bit of finesse, we can
turn CH4 into almost anything
ever made out of petroleum. We
can use it straight as fuel, or
remake it as almost any other
kind of gas or liquid fuel. We
can turn it into chemicals,
even food protein or plastics.
The trick is We Have to Catch
It. So methane capture and
conversion is the Big Thing,
and a lot of waste conversion
for resource recovery is
drawing a bead on this specific
short-term pollutant target,
world-wide. If we manage
methane capture and conversion
right, we get all the fuels and
chemicals without the stink,
without the smog and without
the oil wells, and about the
only thing left over is clean
air and
water.
Hey Rube!
Just about every news item this
week takes a poke at some
aspect of methane capture and
conversion. One group uses
waste gasification, another
anaerobic digestion, and yet
another focuses on turning that
gas into combined heat and
power. Yep, you can do almost
anything with methane –
anything, that it, except
ignore it.
This Week's Extra
Reading
European
Investment Bank Releases
Circular Economy Financing
Reports
The European Investment Bank
(EIB) has released two reports
addressing the institution’s
current and projected plans for
investment in support of the
circular economy.
12/11/2015
Forester
Releases New Report: From
Waste to Energy to Zero
Waste
Forester Media has released a
special report entitled " From
Waste-to-Energy to Zero Waste:
Opportunities and Challenges in
Solid Waste Management" from
MSW Management that provides a
practical roadmap through the
controversy.
12/10/2015
This Week's Top Story
Republic
Opens Advanced Residential
Recycling Center in
Nevada
Arizona based Republic
Services, Inc has opened the
Southern Nevada Recycling
Center serving Clark County,
which is capable of processing
two million pounds of
recyclable material per day, or
70 tons per hour, and is
expected to double recycling
capacity in the area.
12/07/2015
The Week's News
HeidelbergCement
and Joule Partner to
Mitigate CO2 in Cement
Manufacturing
Massachusetts company Joule
Unlimited, Inc and Germany
based HeidelbergCement Group
have announced a partnership
designed to explore application
of Joule’s technology to
mitigate carbon emissions in
cement manufacturing.
12/11/2015
Shell India
Markets to Build IH2
Technology Demo Plant in
Bangalore
Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd
(SIMPL) will proceed with the
installation of a 5 tonne/day
IH2 technology demonstration
plant on the site of its new
Technology Centre in Bangalore,
India.
12/11/2015
Ensyn
Receives Conditional Loan
Guarantee to Build Georgia
Biofuel
Plant
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has
announced a conditional
commitment for a $70 million
loan guarantee to help build a
cellulosic biorefinery in
central Georgia.
12/11/2015
PTG
Contracts to Reduce Golden
Road Brewing's Energy Costs
by
>50%
Pasteurization Technology Group
(PTG) Water & Energy has
been selected by Golden Road
Brewing to provide onsite power
and hot water at its craft beer
production facility in Los
Angeles, California.
12/10/2015
Congresswoman
Pingree Introduces Bill
Designed to Reduce Food
Waste
Maine Congresswoman Chellie
Pingree has introduced a bill
in the United States Congress
aimed at reducing the amount of
food that is wasted each year
in the United States.
12/10/2015
SJVAPCD to
Host Meeting on Alternative
Fuel Infrastructure
RFP
The San
Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control
District (SJVAPCD) in
California is hosting an
informational meeting to
address questions
regarding the Request for
Proposal (RFP) to accept
proposed projects for
alternative fuel
infrastructure under its
Public Benefit Grants
Program.
12/09/2015
First Global
Green Bank Network Is
Planned to Accelerate Shift
to Clean
Energy
A group of six green banks and
two leading non-profit groups
have announced they are
establishing a Green Bank
Network to help meet the urgent
need of increasing and
accelerating investment in
renewable energy and energy
efficiency worldwide.
12/08/2015
WELTEC
BIOPOWER Erects Its Second
Biogas Plant in South
Korea
Germany based WELTEC BIOPOWER
has announced that its second
biogas plant in South Korea is
under construction. In October
2015, construction work began
for the 450-kW anaerobic
digestion plant, and is
scheduled to go live in the
early summer of 2016.
12/08/2015
Outotec
Contracts for Two More Waste
Gasification to Energy
Plants in
UK
Finland based Outotec Oyj has
been awarded two more contracts
for the design and delivery of
waste-to-energy plants to be
built in the United Kingdom
(UK).
12/08/2015
Solvay
Subsidiary Receives RSB
Certification for
Epicerol®
Solvay subsidiary Advanced
Biochemical Thailand Co, Ltd.
(ABT) has received
certification from the
Roundtable on Sustainable
Biomaterials (RSB) for the
production of Epicerol®, a
bio-based building block for
renewable chemicals and resins.
12/07/2015
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