Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 50,
December 21,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Words can confuse as much as
clarify: all our sales-pitch
saturated lives we've heard
that 'organic' things are
better than, well, things that
aren't organic – that
organic
refers to
plants and animals that are
grown, harvested, and processed
without addition of synthetic
chemicals, pesticides,
hormones,
methyl-ethyl-bad-stuff. We have
entire certification systems
designed to figure out which of
the products we buy and sell
can carry their Organic stamp.
Organically raised beef;
organic lettuce, milk, flour,
even organic cotton for organic
clothing.
Now it seems all around the
globe, agencies are no longer
willing to put 'organics' in
landfills.
Maybe
this ban on landfilling
Organics only applies to
dumping the Really Good
Stuff, right?
Wrong.
It's this business of Organic
Molecules that's the key. It’s
all Biomass: it includes all
living or recently living
biological stuff, plants,
animals, food waste, the list
goes on. Organic things share
certain characteristics, chief
among these being that organic
molecules are food for other
organic molecules. Biomass just
naturally breaks down from big
clumps of connected organic
molecules into smaller and
smaller bits until the
once-connected solids, liquids,
and gases are completely
separate. This is both a
blessing and a curse. If we are
trying to keep the planet's
water, soil, and air clean, all
those rotting Organics can make
a serious mess. In a pile the
size of a landfill, the
separating liquids can seep
right down into the
groundwater, the gases like CH4
(methane) go up to become
greenhouse gas (GHG), and even
the solids can be difficult. If
nothing else, it really isn't
very easy to get at that
discarded biomass to do
anything else with it, once it
is dumped in the
dump.
In a landfill, that degrading
organic biomass is a liability
and can remain an expensive
problem for a long, long time.
But when they are not left to
fester in a dump, those same
organic molecules can be
recovered as critical resources
and valuable assets. Any time
we can move something from the
Liability column to the Asset
column in our spreadsheet, it's
Economic Magic: something that
once cost us dearly, now pays
us well.
Alright,
so when we talk about a ban on
Organics being disposed in a
landfill, we don't really care
so much about how it has been
grown, harvested, or processed.
That ban applies just as much
for hundred-year shelf-life hot
dogs as it does for Organic
Tofu. If the stuff is Biomass,
it is a resource to be
recovered, not a nuisance to be
dumped.
Hey Rube!
Nothing is ever that simple, is
it? Consider for a moment that
when we move Biomass from one
place to another, we can also
carry along all the pests and
diseases that feast upon it.
This presents a different
problem, one involving
regulated restrictions on that
movement called Quarantines.
Right now in California,
two-thirds of the counties have
mandatory quarantines in place
that constrain our movement of
one kind of biomass or another
from one place to another. Boy,
does THAT wrinkle put a kink in
large-scale beneficial use of
Biomass!
This Week's Extra
Reading
US Federal
Agencies Release Update on
National Biogas
Activities
The US Department of Energy
(DOE), the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and US
Department of Agriculture
(USDA) have jointly released
the Biogas Opportunities
Roadmap Progress Report.
12/16/2015
This Week's Top Story
Community-Owned
Biodiesel Plant in
Massachusetts to Open Early
2016
Massachusetts based Co-op
Power's partner Northeast
Biodiesel, LLC is constructing
a biofuel manufacturing plant
at the Greenfield Industrial
Park.
12/15/2015
The Week's News
Construction
of Global Bioenergies' Demo
Plant in Germany Ahead of
Schedule
France based Global Bioenergies
has announced the installation
of the central unit at its demo
plant in Leuna, Germany 40 days
ahead of schedule.
12/17/2015
MagneGas®
Fuel to be Part of $100M
Kennedy Space Center
Project
Florida based MagneGas
Corporation has announced that
S&R Enterprises LLC, a lead
sub-contractor for a major $100
+ million Kennedy Space Center
build-out project, has placed
their first order for
MagneGas2® fuel.
12/17/2015
Reverdia and
Omnia Collaborate to
Distribute Biosuccinium in
Africa,
Australia
Reverdia and Protea Chemicals,
a division of Omnia, have
announced an exclusive
strategic collaboration
agreement to distribute
Biosuccinium™ in Africa and
Australia, as well as for
potential investment in and
off-take from future
Biosuccinium™ plants.
12/17/2015
Chempolis
Partners with Avantha to
Extract Ethanol from
Cellulosic
Bio-Waste
Finland based Chempolis Limited
has entered into a partnership
with Avantha Group’s research
wing Avantha Centre for
Industrial Research &
Development (ACIRD) in India to
offer technology to extract
ethanol from various
agricultural residues for
blending with petrol.
12/16/2015
ZooShare
Offers New $2.2M Bond Round
for Toronto Zoo Poo
Digester
The Toronto Zoo's ZooShare
program has announced that new
bonds are being offered to help
finance its proposed Zoo Poo
and Food Waste Digester.
12/16/2015
RESYNTEX
Project Is Launched to
Convert Textile Waste to New
Raw
Materials
RESYNTEX is a €11 million
research project created with
the core objective to create a
new circular economy concept
for the textile and chemical
industries.
12/15/2015
UK GIB and
Foresight Back Northern
Ireland On-Farm Energy
Project
UK Green Investment Bank plc
(GIB) and Foresight Group LLP
(Foresight) have committed
£1.7m to the construction of a
£3.4m anaerobic digestion plant
(AD) in Armagh, Northern
Ireland.
12/15/2015
City of
Austin Awards $10K for Spent
Grain Brewnola Bars in
[RE]Verse
Pitch
The first-ever [RE]Verse Pitch
Competition awarded a $10,000
innovation prize to Austin
resident Brandon Ward for his
idea of turning spent grain, a
byproduct from the brewing
process, into "Brewnola"
granola bars.
12/15/2015
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