World First As HS2 Trials Dual-Fuel Piling Rig On London Site
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item on HS2.
This is the piling rig.
These are the two bullet points.
- Four piles installed using a hydrogen dual-fuel piling rig, cutting the use of traditional fuel by 36%.
- Trial is the first real world use of the technology on a construction site.
These three paragraphs outline the project.
HS2 has taken a further step forward in decarbonising the constructure sector, completing a world first by installing four 30-metre deep piles on a London site using a hydrogen dual-fuel piling rig.
The trial took place as part of work done in partnership by ULEMCo and Cementation Skanska, working with the world-leading Business Research Establishment (BRE), funded through the BEIS Phase 1 Red Diesel Replacement competition.
ULEMCo and Cementation Skanska successfully modified a medium sized CFA piling rig, converting it so that the machine component operated using energy from on-board hydrogen tanks. Using the dual-fuel system, both diesel and biofuels (HVO) can be mixed with hydrogen, displacing the fuel with hydrogen, resulting in a reduction in fuel use and lower CO2 emissions.
Note.
- We’re going to see a lot more large machines converted to dual-fuel and pure hydrogen.
- ULEMCo from Aintree, seem to be one of the leaders in the field of dual-fuel conversions.
You certainly see lots of these machines working around London and other big cities.
Italy’s Energy Dome Raises $44 million To Focus On CO2 Storage In US
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on Reuters.
This is the opening paragraph.
Energy Dome, an Italian startup focusing on CO2 energy storage solutions, said on Friday it had raised 40 million euros ($44 million) from investors to fund expansion in the U.S.
It looks like another European company chasing Biden’s dollars.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Medical Research
Medical Research
I first got involved as a lab-rat in medical research, when I had my second endoscopy to check for coeliac disease at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in 1997. Rebecca Fitzgerald took a sample of fluid from my gut for her Barrett’s oesophagus research.
After my wife died, I asked my contact in Alumni Relations at Liverpool University, if they did widowhood research.
They are one of the few universities that do and I did several interviews for PhD students in the unit, which is in the Psychology Department. It was very much a positive experience and certainly helped with my grieving.
In some ways the most enjoyable piece of research I have been involved in, was at the University of East London, where they were using computers to measure the balance of those recovering from strokes.
My GP also suggested that I get involved in drug tests at Queen Mary University. The tests were abandoned as the drug didn’t have any good or bad effects, but now I’m one of the William Harvey Centre’s lab-rats.
I also help to sponsor pancreatic cancer research at Liverpool University in memory of my son.
In There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles!, I detail some research, that I sponsored in a small way.
I may be tempted to do the fund-raising trip again.
I always advise people to get involved in medical or psychological research, as I have found it such a beneficial experience.
One thing that is needed, is an on-line database of all research projects that are looking for volunteers.
Remember, that much medical and psychological research is about as dangerous as meeting someone in a GP’s surgery for a chat or perhaps in a cafe and having a coffee.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – A Few Bad Years
A Few Bad Years
In 2007, my wife died of what her consultant at Papworth said was one of the worst cancers he’d ever seen. It was a squamous cell carcinoma of the heart.
Her’s was the only occurrence in the UK that year and someone told me, there were four in the United States.
Our youngest son; George, then died of pancreatic cancer in 2009.
When I had been diagnosed as a coeliac in 1997, my wife and I had told our sons to get themselves tested, as is now advised on the NHS web site.
But George was a sound engineer in the music business, who lived the unhealthy rock-and-roll lifestyle.
A year later, I had a serious stroke in Hong Kong.
I had had a warning a year or so before and Addenbrooke’s recommended I go on Warfarin, but my GP in Suffolk, talked me out of it.
Now twelve years later, my GP and myself manage my Warfarin, where I do the testing of my INR on my own meter from Roche.
But then I am a Graduate Control Engineer!
A couple of doctors have said I have made a remarkable recovery, and I’ll go along with that as the only thing I can’t do, that I could before the stroke is drive, as the stroke damaged my eyesight.
On the other hand, the latest therapy for stroke in the United States is B12 injections and I haven’t missed one of my three-monthly injections since 1997.
If anybody is doing serious research into B12 and stroke recovery, then I would be happy to be a lab-rat.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Coeliac Diagnosis
Coeliac Diagnosis
My health was very variable as a child.
I would often have months off school and my health only really improved, when my parents bought a second home in Felixstowe, where we spent most of our holidays.
Perhaps it was the sea air, as going to Liverpool University didn’t seem to adversely affect my health.
I had been having gut problems for years and then in Autumn 1997, I didn’t see my GP, but a very elderly locum, who as I had recently had my fiftieth birthday, gave me a present of my first blood test.
It turned out that I was very low on B12 and a course of B12 injections was arranged.
As the injections didn’t raise my levels, an appointment was made to see a consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
It was a Monday, when I went to the appointment and after a quick chat and no examination, the consultant said that they would take some blood. Which they did!
Within forty-eight hours a letter arrived on my door-mat saying that I was probably coeliac and it would be confirmed by endoscopy.
Two endoscopies without sedative or anaesthetic were performed and I was confirmed as coeliac.
The first was performed by Dr. Richard Hardwick and the second by Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald.
My gut health has been better since, I’ve been on a gluten-free diet, backed up by three-monthly B12 injections.
A few years later, I was talking to a gastroenterologist in Cambridge and he told me that he thought he had more coeliac patients than any other in England.
The manager of Carluccio’s in the city, also told me that they sold a very high percentage of gluten-free food.
Were Cambridge testing a genetic test for coeliac disease or was it just a Whack-A-Coeliac policy?
They certainly had everything geared up for high-speed diagnosis. They even did the endoscopies without a sedative, so they didn’t need any recovery beds.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Introduction
Introduction
I am coeliac and I had an interesting journey through the Covid-19 pandemic.
My experiences will be laid out in this narrative, as I believe they might be of use to someone.
I was born in 1947 and after a good education at Minchenden Grammar School in North London, I read Electrical Engineering and Electronics at Liverpool University, where in addition to getting a B. Eng degree, I met and married my late wife; Celia. We had three boys in the early seventies.
My working life was mainly spent in the solving of mathematical problems and writing software to perform complex calculations mainly in the fields of data analysis, project management, statistics and the solving of simultaneous differential equations.
The Artemis software, that I wrote in the 1970s, controlled the building of the Channel Tunnel, was the software of choice in the development of the North Sea oil and gas fields and was even used by NASA to plan the missions of the Space Shuttles and their refurbishment after each flight.
My business partners and myself sold the company to the American aerospace company; Lockheed in the 1980s.
Since then, I have been involved in various ventures.
The most successful was to back two inventors, who had developed an aerosol valve that used nitrogen as the propellant.
We sold that on to Johnson & Johnson, but the experience led to the development of the Respimat Inhaler for Boehringer Ingelheim.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19
I am writing this presentation for a meeting, in the next few days, so there will be several pages with similar titles to this.
The Anonymous Widower 