I’ve Just Come Across Avnos
I feel we should take into account any possibilities of second use of oil or gas structures, that once held hydrocarbons.
An article in a magazine called Carbon Herald pointed me to a company called Avnos, who are developing Direct Air Capture of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. If systems like that of Avnos do work, we may need somewhere to put the carbon dioxide.
Centrica are storing the hydrogen in the Rough gas field, which was previously used for storing natural gas and now some depleted gas fields are being used to store captured carbon dioxide.
On the subject of carbon capture, Avnos do it differently, in that for every tonne of CO2, they capture from the air, they capture five tonnes of distilled water. And they do it without using any heat.
This is their web site.
This is their mission statement on the front page of the web site. There is also a video.
Carbon Negative. Water Positive
Avnos is commercializing the most advanced technology in the Direct Air Capture of CO2
Our proprietary Hybrid Direct Air Capture (HDAC) solution inverts the water paradigm in DAC, producing water, eliminating heat consumption and reducing costs compared to other forms of DAC.
It sounds too good to be true!
But I have experience of the positive financial results of fluid dynamics in this area.
Thirty years ago, two guys approached me with an idea for an aerosol valve that used nitrogen as a propellant.
At the time, I lived in the house, where Osborne Reynolds, the great Victorian fluid dynamicist of Reynold’s number fame had been brought up.
The guys succeeded and the device was sold on to J & J.
They were then asked to develop a metered dose inhaler for asthma drugs, which is now sold as Respimat, which is sold by Boehringer Ingelheim.
Afterwards, I researched Reynolds at Manchester University, where he was the first Professor of Engineering and I found that he had done some marvelous things with fluids. He was a true genius and undergraduates are still taught on his Victorian apparatus.
I suspect that Avnos may have been exploring in the same area and are using another of Reynold’s useful properties.
Paddington And Minehead By Train
Two projects announced in the last six months may make this a possibility.
- FirstGroup’s Paddington and Paignton Service
- The West Somerset Tidal Lagoon
Neither project has the full permissions it needs, but if Lumo do stop at Taunnton and the West Somerset Tidal Lagoon is built, if could open up an interesting possibility.
In Thoughts On Lumo’s Proposed Paddington And Paignton Service, I stated that a train could take two hours between Paddington and Taunton, if it went for a fast non-stop run to Bath Spar station.
In MP Pushes For Tidal Lagoon In Bristol Channel, I said this.
I believe that for the lagoon project to be complete, the West Somerset Railway needs to be turned into a fully-operational branch line between Minehead and Taunton to improve access for residents, visitors and workers to Minehead and other places in West Somerset.
Surely, with a quick change of train, passengers could be in Minehead thirty minutes after arriving at Taunton.
In recent years several new branch lines have open in the UK and been given time to attract new passengers.
- The Borders Railway to Tweedbank
- Merseyrail to Headbolt Lane
- The Northumberland Line to Ashington
- ScotRail to Leven.
- The Dartmouth Line to Okehampton
None appear to be in any danger of being closed.
I very much feel, that if the West Somerset Railway, ran a full service between Minehead and Taunton, it would follow the same pattern.
The Anonymous Widower 