South Western Railway Completes Trial Of Class 159 Emission Reducing Technology
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
This is Project 4 called Green Rail Exhaust After Treatment, that I wrote about in Grants To Support Low-Carbon Technology Demonstrators.
I also wrote about the project in SWR And Porterbrook Trial New Emission-Slashing Rail Technology.
This paragraph from the Rail Advent article sums up the results.
In partnership with Porterbrook and Eminox, South Western Railway has trialled a new system that has real-world reductions in pollution from nitrous oxides (NOx) by over 80% and hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter (PM) by over 90%.
The technology appears to have performed well in a six-month trial.
As the proof of the pudding is always in the eating, it will be interesting to see how many systems are installed on the two hundred trains in the closely-related Class 158 and Class 159 train fleets.
The Rival Plans For Piccadilly Station, That Architects Say Will ‘Save Millions’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Manchester Evening News.
This subtitle introduces the idea.
The speculative proposal includes a new underground HS2 station and an ‘s-shaped tunnel’ under the city centre.
The architects are Weston Williamson and I have felt for years that this was the best way and I put my ideas and some fragments from the press and Northern Powerhouse Rail in Manchester Piccadilly ‘Super Hub’ Proposed.
This picture from Weston Williamson, shows their proposed station.
Note.
- In the visualisation, you are observing the station from the East.
- The existing railway lines into Piccadilly station are shown in red.
- Stockport and Manchester Airport are to the left, which is to the South.
- Note the dreaded Castlefield Corridor in red going off into the distance to Oxford Road and Deansgate stations.
- The new high speed lines are shown in blue.
- To the left they go to Manchester Airport and then on to London, Birmingham and the South, Warrington and Liverpool and Wigan, Preston, Blackpool, Barroe-in-Furness, the North and Scotland.
- To the right, they go to Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds, Hull and the North East, and Sheffield, Doncaster and the East.
- Between it looks like a low-level High Speed station with at least four tracks and six platforms.
- The Manchester Mretrolink is shown in yellow.
- The potential for over-site development is immense. If the Station Square Tower was residential, the penthouses would be some of the most desirable places to live in the North.
This Google Map shows the current station.
Unfortunately, the map is round the other way to the visualisation, but I hope you can see how the shape of the current station is intact and can be picked out in both.
If you’ve ever used London Paddington station in the last few years, you will know that Crossrail is being built underneath. But the massive construction project of building the Crossrail platforms has not inconvenienced the normal business of the station.
Weston Williamson’s proposed station can be built in the same way.
It could be truly transformational
- Manchester Piccadilly station would have at least 43 percent more platforms.
- Classic-compatible High Speed commuter trains would run to Barrow, Blackpool, Chester, Derby, Nottingham and Shrewsbury from the low-level High Speed station.
- The Northern Powerhouse Rail for all TransPennine Express services would use the low-level High Speed station.
- Glasgow services would use the low-level High Speed station.
- Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport would have up to 18 high speed trains per hour and would be the finest airport service in the world.
- Some or all of the low-level High Speed platforms, would be able to take 400 metre long trains.
- 400 metre long platforms could handle one 200 metre long train from Manchester Airport and one 200 metre long train from Yorkshire.
- The Castlefield Corridor would only have local trains, limited to a number, with which it could cope.
- The use of the existing platforms would be reorganised.
It would be a massive increase in the capacity of the station and as been shown at Paddington with Crossrail, I am sure, that it could be built without massive disruption to existing services.
The Ultimate Train To The North
Imagine a pair of 200 metre long classic-compatible trains running between London Euston and Leeds.
- They would travel via Birmingham Interchange, Manchester Airport, Manchester Piccadilly, Huddersfield and Bradford.
- The trains would divide at Leeds.
- One train would go to Hull.
- The second train would go to York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. It could be extended to Edinburgh.
- It could even run with a Turn-Up-And-Go frequency of four tph.
Why not?
OVO Energy To Lead Major Zero-Carbon Heat Trial
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Current News.
These initial three paragraphs explain the project.
OVO Energy is to lead one of the UK’s largest ever zero-carbon heating trails, thanks to a £4.2 million grant from the government.
Kaluza, Sunamp, Retrofit Works and Parity Projects will work together with OVO Energy to install and operate zero-carbon heating systems worth up to £15,000 in 250 homes.
Mitusbishi’s Ecodan air source heat pump and Sunamp’s thermal batteries will be installed in the homes, creating electric, zero-carbon heating systems. Additionally, the homes involved will have up to £5,000 worth of energy efficiency improvements made.
That sounds like a sensible project to me, as we need to be zero-carbon in everything we do and heating is the largest source of emissions in the UK with twenty percent.
Think Zinc: Another Metal That Can Transform The Energy Storage Sector
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Stockhouse.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Mines worldwide extract more than 11.9 million metric tons of zinc annually. There are zinc mines in over 50 countries around the world, and while the metal plays a key role in the steel industry, few people understand its transformative role in the energy storage sector. When most people think of the metals that power today’s energy storage systems, vanadium and lithium are at front of mind.
Wikipedia has an entry called Zinc Mining. This extract, sums up the availability of zinc from mining.
Global zinc mine production in 2019 was estimated to be 12.9 million tonnes. The largest producers were China (34%), Peru (11%), Australia (10%), United States (6.1%), India (5.5%), and Mexico (5.4%), with Australia having the largest reserves.
The world’s largest zinc mine is the Red Dog open-pit zinc-lead-silver mine in Alaska, with 4.2% of world production. Major zinc mine operators include Vedanta Resources, Glencore, BHP, Teck Resources, Sumitomo, Nexa Resources, Boliden AB, and China Minmetals.
The paragraph is accompanied by a photograph from the Zinkgruvan mine in Sweden.
Closer to home, in 2009, Ireland mined 385,670 tonnes of zinc and was the tenth largest producer in the world. Tara Mine is at Navan in County Meath.
This Google Map shows its location to the West of Navan.
So if the Irish build more wind turbines, they have the zinc for their own zinc-air batteries.
The Stockhouse article is written by Ron MacDonald, who is President and CEO of Zinc8 Energy Solutions. He says this.
To give one example: Our company Zinc8 Energy Solutions has won a recent contract award and project collaboration with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and private sector deployment agreement with Digital Energy supported by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda). We will deploy a 100kW/1.5MWh zinc-air system capable of storing energy for 15 hours.
Everybody, who worries about our future energy supplies should read the full article.
Coeliac Disease: Can We Avert The Impending Epidemic In India?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this peer-reviewed paper on the Indian Journal Of Research Medicine.
With the high levels of COVID-19 in Leicester and people with an Indian heritage making up 28.3 % of the population of the city, I was searching the internet to see if there was any connection between those of Indian heritage and coeliac disease.
I know you should not try to prove a theory. But as a coeliac, I’m very interested to see how the millions of diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet like me, are faring in this pandemic.
These are some extracts from the paper.
Prevalence Of Coeliac Disease In Northern India
Coeliac disease was recognized in northern India, primarily in children, since the 1960s. A community-based study in Ludhiana that involved a step-wise approach to case detection and diagnosis estimated that celiac disease prevalence in this city was at least 1 in 310 individuals. Hospital-based studies examining a general paediatric patient population suggest a prevalence of 1 per cent.
One per cent is a high figure.
Diet And Coeliac Disease
The other variable is that cereal consumption patterns are very different between north and south India, although there has been a recent change in these patterns particularly in urban areas. In south India, rice is the primary cereal consumed in the diet. In the Indian sub-continent, wheat consumption is high in Pakistan and in the States of north India, which also constitute the coeliac belt of India.
It’s fascinating how two parts of the same country can be so different.
Introducing Babies To Gluten
The time of first exposure to wheat influences the development of celiac disease. In countries such as Finland, Estonia, and Denmark, characterized by low gluten consumption in infancy, celiac disease prevalence is much lower than in Sweden where gluten consumption is high in infancy. A natural experiment occurred in Sweden about two decades ago when national recommendations were made to introduce wheat into the diet after cessation of breast feeding at six months. This change was coupled with increased wheat gluten consumption through infant feeds. Together these measures resulted in a two-fold increase in incidence of celiac disease in Sweden, which was attributed to introduction of wheat into the diet after cessation of breast feeding. In 1996 this recommendation was changed to introduce gluten in gradually increasing amounts while the infant was still being breast fed. This led to a dramatic decrease in celiac disease incidence.
We used a Baby Mouli with our three and they all got what we ate, through a sieve.
All Wheats Are Not Equal
The other dimension to this problem is that not all wheat is alike when it comes to inducing celiac disease. The ancient or diploid wheats (e.g. Triticum monococcum) are poorly antigenic, while the modern hexaploid wheats e.g. Triticum aestivum) have highly antigenic glutens, more capable of inducing celiac disease in India, for centuries, grew diploid and later tetraploid wheat which is less antigenic, while hexaploid wheat used in making bread is recently introduced. Thus a change back to older varieties of wheat may have public health consequences.
I’ve read somewhere before that high-gluten wheats could have been the reason that bubonic plague came back.
Public Health Recommendations
Public health authorities may well want to examine both these avenues, i.e. infant feeding recommendations and wheat varieties cultivated in the country, for opportunities to avert the epidemic of celiac disease which is impending in our country.
I’ll agree with that! And the recommendations should be carried forward in the UK.
Conclusion
I have found this medical paper fascinating.
I can’t resist looking up the rates of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the countries mentioned.
- Denmark 12751 – 6.80 million – 187.5
- Estonia – 1947 – 1.32 million – 147.3
- Finland – 7190 – 5.52 million – 130.2
- Sweden – 65137 – 10.3 million – 632.4
- United Kingdom – 311965 – 66.5 million – 469.1
- United States – 2593169 – 326.7 million – 793
Note.
- The first figure is the number of lab confirmed cases from Wikipedia
- The second figure is the population.
- The third figure is the rate of lab-confirmed cases per 100.000 of the population
I have left India out as their number of tests seems extremely low.
Note how the three countries, that have fed their children on a low-gluten diet are top of the table, with the lowest rates of lab-confirmed cases.
I have said it before and I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face. Undiagnosed coeliac disease may have something to do with this pandemic and someone should investigate it properly.
Thoughts On The Outbreak In Leicester
I have heard reports that those found positive in Leicester live in a poor area and they tend to be younger.
Could it be that in their new country, they were introduced to gluten too early, because it’s easier to give gluten than proper food? Especially, where some roads in this country, are lined with scores of fast food shops selling gluten-rich junk food.
What do I know? I’m just an engineer and a coeliac who has a good nose for problems!
But please someone! Research the connection between undiagnosed coeliac disease and COVID-19!
My son; George was an undiagnosed coeliac with a gluten-rich and smokey lifestyle. He died at just 37 from pancreatic cancer.
Did he have a poor immune system, which meant he couldn’t fight the cancer? One expert on cancer from Liverpool University said, “Yes!”
Bucks Council Supports New Internet Lines
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Mix96.
Buckinghamshire County Council are proposing to use the construction of the new East West Railway, as a route for extra Internet connectivity.
How sensible!
Are East West Railway and Buckinghamshire County Council talking to Hive Composites, about their next generation composite poles for a 5G-enabled railway, that won funding in the latest round of first-of-a-kind funding from Innovate UK?
Will other councils and companies be using other rail construction to advantage?
How Leeds Bradford Airport Can Be Catalyst For Green Aviation
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Yorkshire Post.
The article was written by a geography student from Yorkshire, who is studying at Cambridge University.
He makes some interesting points.
- Leeds Airport is not a good customer experience.
- Manchester Airport will take passengers away from Leeds.
- Leeds is the biggest financial centre in the UK outside London.
- Leeds Airport should be improved to the highest environmental standards.
- Aviation biofuels should be provided.
- Short haul flights should be replaced by a train journey if possible.
- By 2030, a lot of short haul flights will be replaced by electric aircraft.
I agree with a lot of what he says.
There will still be a need to fly and we must make it as environmentally-friendly as possible.
If we don’t find ways of making flying carbon-neutral, we’ll hurt the economy.
Highview Power On The Good News Network
If the Good News Network, is what it says on the tin, then I’m pleased that they’ve written this article, which is entitled World’s Biggest Liquid-Air Battery – ‘The Climate-Emission Killer’ – Is Now Under Construction In England.
The article, appears to be a rehash of what appeared in the Guardian, slanted for American readers.
It has the usual American fault of mixing up England with the UK, but surely the fact that it’s on the site, is good news for Highview Power.
How To Get Rid Of The “Microsoft Account Problem” Notification
I get the occasional one of these notifications on my new Windows 10 computer. I just ignore them, like I do all notifications, as this is a load of rubbish, that I didn’t have to put up with on my previous Windows 7 computer, that is sadly on its last legs.
I searched the internet and found this good explanation of what to do with them. If you want the one-word answer it’s Ignore!!!
The Debate Over Burning Dead Trees To Create Biomass Energy
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Wired.
This is the sub-title.
Critics worry about the risks of overcutting and wood smoke. But supporters say the practice will prevent megafires—which release even more carbon dioxide.
For those who worry about the ethics of biomass, it is a must-read.
The Anonymous Widower 