Teru Talk Newsletter

Teru's Trash Talk

Ah, dear readers – global change is in the wind. And that breeze is blowin' strong against this bulwark of the Waste Conversion realm, Teru Talk. As of this issue, we are taking a much needed hiatus. You see, we have become so enthused and inspired by implementing our on-going move of the Teru Talk headquarters that we have taken on a much larger task: moving our data.

For Teru Talk has not only been reporting upon the surges and declines in the global pursuit of sane waste management for resource recovery, we have been taking digital notes. We've built deep, detailed, constantly maintained profiles of the companies, technologies, and projects that struggle to turn costly residues back into valuable commodities of energy, fuels, and foundation chemicals. We've been following the economies, plus and the minus, that result from and impinge upon that progression from new stuff to old stuff, and back to new stuff again.

We have been keeping watch over the agencies internationally that engage in oversight of this never-ending pursuit, selectively salving on kudos or reprimanding for overt silliness. Always a gnarly task, we have also been ferreting out and following the bright lights in our global labs and institutions that can provide the dramatic leaps forward. More pleasantly, we have been tracking the associations, trusts, and foundations that support, guide, and often drive forward these diverse aspects of the Circular Resource Flow. … and all the while, taking digital notes …

We've cleaned the offices and boxed up the warehouse, recycling the remaining paper files in favor of the All Digital approach. Now, we must attend to proper data management, lest we simply get bowled over too completely to get back up. It's one thing to collect cardboard boxes for binders and books; it is a wholly different challenge to identify, acquire, and populate a new data management infrastructure. O, Trash: how do we convert thee? Let us count the ways – now, let's stare the Data Beast in the maw and count its teeth together, shall we?

As of May Day 2016, we are maintaining a global 'live catalogue' of 2,897 digital profiles, some freshly minted, some old enough to grow moss. In the broad Core Conversion Technologies category right now, we're tracking around 400 companies practicing the art and science of Anaerobic Digestion, 50 plus focused on aerobic digestion (often called composting) and another 100 or so whose microbes work oxygenated, non-oxygenated or both. Combining the thermal conversion subcategories – plasma, gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, super-critical fluids and a smattering of others - adds 700 or so entrants. Then there are perhaps another 600 in the Kinetics / Chemical Core Conversion super-category – processing pathways that dance back and forth between acting as primary or ancillary conversion mechanism. Here, we find the dramatic and overlapping fields of Catalytics and Enzymatics, the more mundane yet crucial tool kits for Cavitation, Hydrolysis, and Electrolysis, a dozen or so using the chemistry of Cementiteous Encapsulation especially for carbon sequestration, even two entrants advancing the obscure magic of the Gravity Pressure Vessel. And on, and on …

We say 'Global' but who can watch everything? Our coverage is strong in the US, not too bad in all of North America, and pitifully inadequate South of the Border. Western Europe, the UK, and the Nordic region get the lion's share of our non-US attention, but boy, is it difficult to really understand that crash-course in waste management that India is now undergoing! The African Continent is begging for attention. We've got a decent yet modest track for Japan and all of Micronesia, but we'll need another lifetime to understand China, I'm afraid.

We've been advised that we're wrangling about the same amount of detail as a large community hospital, and like the medical profession, we are learning by doing what Big Data means - that information varies by the 4 Vs: its Volume, Variety, Velocity and Veracity. Our time- and location-tagged profiles hit all the V-buttons. To adequately manage and analyze this mountain we need a new data management platform that can warehouse, auto-update, sort, contrast and compare, and report. We also need some New Smarts, as our own smarts seem woefully ill-equipped to puzzle this out. We have, however made significant progress in finding the Tools and the Teams. Now we need to take the Time to get this all reorganized, so are calling Time Out.

Hey Rube!

Oh, never fear: we're still here, monitoring the flow and maintaining the profiles – this retrofit is rather like fixing the aircraft while in mid-flight. We'll send out an occasional blitz to remind you we are still alive and well, if Under Reconstruction. But our Newsletter in particular will take a hiatus. You already know where Teru Talk resides, and www.terutalk.com will remain online so don't be strangers – if nothing else, stop by to say Hi. If you have something to add to our data mountain please send a quick note, and know this too will be inscribed on the electronic tally. But if you have crucial, experiential knowledge specific to making this transition from just a whole lotta detail into managing, analyzing and monetizing Big Data, mid-flight, we're all ears, digitally speaking. So until we surface again: our kindest regards, loyal readers.

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