Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 8, February
23,
2015
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
A reader from Ireland asked
about one of my favorite waste
conversion methods last week.
If less than front page
news,
microbial
fuel cells
(MFC) are still
pretty nifty. Microbes
break down their lunch of
complex organics into
smaller molecules. For
anaerobic digestion (AD)
plants, we've learned to
grow bugs that are really
good at spitting out
methane, burping butane
or emitting a wealth of
other chemicals. The
bacteria used in MFCs
occur naturally in
wastewater, such as the
iron-reducing bacteria.
They certainly decompose
just about any type of
biodegradable organic
waste, and while they are
at it, they also can
make
electricity
.
Waste conversion processes turn
garbage back into goods, waste
to wealth. Humans make some
pretty yucky wastes themselves,
and every sewage treatment
plant worldwide uses bugs to
break it down. More advanced
treatment plants add AD tanks
to make methane from the muck,
then use that fuel gas to run
engines that power and heat
their plant. But we tend to
lose energy with every
hand-off, with each added
processing step, and
inefficiency costs money. If
you can get bacteria to eat
waste and spit out sparks
directly, you really cut to the
chase.
What folks are learning
to do
with
these overly-sparky microbes is
proof of Man's unending
inventiveness. At the
University of Bristol, they
make little robot MFCs that are
powered by urine-slurping
microbes. There's bound to be a
solid niche market somewhere,
given the availability of
personally produced feedstock.
On larger and perhaps more
practical scales, research
teams around the world are
perfecting MFCs that make
electricity while cleaning
organic-laden municipal and
industrial wastewater.
According to the MFC team at
Penn State, the
microbe-produced power flows
because their bugs stick to one
electrode, the "anode", in vats
without handy oxygen molecules.
Their harvested electrons have
to go somewhere, so they seek
out the other electrode, the
"cathode", which conveniently
sits in a separate but
adjoining vat of water that has
plenty of oxygen. The imbalance
works just like any battery.
MFCs break down the organics
introduced into the dirty-water
side and produce only clean
water and
electricity.
Penn
State takes the MFC
trick a step further: they
add a bit of outside
electricity to that anode
side and deprive the
corresponding cathode of
available oxygen The MFC
then produces Power and Pure
Hydrogen! Of course, when
you make something this
cool, you have to give it a
really complicated new name:
Penn State calls their MFCs
" bioelectrochemically
assisted microbial
reactors". I wonder what the
Brits at Bristol calls their
tiny urine powered MFC
robots ...
Peewee?
Hey Rube!
We don't
really have to look that hard
to find smart people
commercializing amazing waste
conversion platforms. After
all, systems like anaerobic
digesters may seem old hat to
some of us, but Tropical Power
says they are just now
commissioning the first plant
in Africa to pump biomethane
into the regional natural gas
grid. Sainsbury's markets in
the UK are running their stores
on methane-power from their
supplier's sugar beet waste,
and reclaiming even their
refrigerator waste heat for
great efficiency. And wonder of
wonder of wonders: the Sierra
Club has published a
very
favorable
article on All Power Lab's
biomass gasification tech
platform, asking, "Can Ending
Energy Poverty Abroad Create
Jobs At Home?" Way to go,
Clubbers!
This Week's Top Story
Tropical
Power Commissions Pioneering
Biogas Plant in
Africa
Tropical Power Energy Group
(Tropical Power) has built and
is commissioning the first
grid-connect Anaerobic Digester
(AD) plant in Africa, in
Naivasha Kenya.
02/18/2015
The Week's News
ILG
Schedules Webinar on CEQA
Guidelines for Recycling
Projects
Cities and counties across the
state are working to meet the
state mandated waste diversion
goals. To do this, governments
across California are looking
to build and expand recycling
infrastructure projects.
02/20/2015
Citi Commits
$100 Billion Over 10 Years
to Finance Sustainable
Growth
Citigroup, Inc (Citi) has
announced a commitment to lend,
invest, and facilitate a total
of $100 billion within the next
10 years to finance activities
that reduce the impacts of
climate change and create
environmental solutions that
benefit people and communities.
02/20/2015
London
Report Calls for Food Waste
Separation for All London
Boroughs
Every year the City of London
throws away over 7 million
tonnes of food and drink from
its homes, with food waste
accounting for around 20 per
cent of all domestic waste.
02/20/2015
APL Focuses
Waste Biomass Gasification
Systems on Global
Energy
All Power Labs (APL) has
announced that Dr. Dan Kammen
has agreed to join APL as the
founding member of its Board of
Directors.
02/20/2015
ElectraTherm
Commissions Three Waste
Heat-to-Power Generators in
Alaska
Nevada based ElectraTherm, Inc
has commissioned three Green
Machines to produce fuel-free,
emission-free electricity from
diesel gensets at the Dutch
Harbor power plant in the
remote Aleutian islands of
Alaska.
02/19/2015
Sainsbury’s
Powers Fridges Using Sugar
Beet Waste from
Suppliers
United Kingdom (UK) based
Sainsbury’s has pioneered new
technology to power its fridges
in its Portishead store with a
new natural product that’s
produced entirely from waste.
02/19/2015
Trillium
Inks Deal to Install CNG
Station at Monterey
Environmental
Park
Chicago based Trillium CNG™, a
business unit of Integrys
Energy Group, Inc, has signed a
letter of agreement with the
Monterey Regional Waste
Management District in
California to build, own, and
operate a new compressed
natural gas (CNG) refueling
station to power the District's
CNG refuse trucks.
02/17/2015
£60M Will Be
Invested in UK
Community-Scale Renewable
Energy
Projects
The United Kingdom (UK)
Business Secretary Vince Cable
has announced a new investment
of £60m by the UK Green
Investment Bank (GIB) and the
Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF)
in UK community-scale renewable
energy projects.
02/17/2015
Valicor
Acquires Patent for
Co-Product Recovery from
Ethanol
Production
Valicor Inc has announced that
it acquired a patent that
covers the extraction of
protein from corn ethanol
stillage and is designed to
help ethanol producers maximize
their co-product recovery and
value.
02/17/2015
|