Steam Methane Reforming
In The Liverpool Manchester Hydrogen Clusters Project, I used an extract that describes the project.
This was a paragraph from the extract.
It proposes converting natural gas into clean-burning hydrogen gas, using a process called steam methane reforming. The process also removes CO2 from the gas, which can then be captured using existing carbon and capture storage technology and stored in depleted offshore gas reservoirs.
So what is steam methane reforming?
Methane is a chemical compound consisting of one carbon and four hydrogen atoms, that is the major component of natural gas.
This first paragraph is from the Wikipedia entry for steam reforming.
Steam reforming is a method for producing hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or other useful products from hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas. This is achieved in a processing device called a reformer which reacts steam at high temperature with the fossil fuel. The steam methane reformer is widely used in industry to make hydrogen. There is also interest in the development of much smaller units based on similar technology to produce hydrogen as a feedstock for fuel cells. Small-scale steam reforming units to supply fuel cells are currently the subject of research and development, typically involving the reforming of methanol, but other fuels are also being considered such as propane, gasoline, autogas, diesel fuel, and ethanol.
If the process has a problem, it is that is produces carbon dioxide, which in the case of the Liverpool Manchester Hydrogen Clusters Project is captured and will be stored depleted gas reservoirs.
Lipman Says Corbyn Must Leave The Stage
This title of this post, is the same, as that of a small article in The Times.
Ms Lipman used the words, malign, scary and antisemitic.
Enough said!
I sent a text to a friend, who knows Maureen Lipman.
Strangely, she received the text, as she was talking to Ms Lipman on the phone.
‘Assassination List’ A&E Doctor Jailed For 12 Years
The title of this post5 is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
A former A&E consultant has been jailed for 12 years for possessing firearms with intent to endanger life.
Dr Martin Watt, who worked at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie from 1994, was sacked in 2012 following disciplinary proceedings.
The 62-year-old was later found with three sub-machine guns, two pistols, ammunition and an “assassination list” of those he blamed for his dismissal.
Why do guns make people lose their minds?
I find this a chilling tale!
Charging For Single Use Plastic. Aluminium And Glass Drinks Containers
I’m all for this, but I feel we should look at how the empties are returned and refunds are obtained.
The Norwegians seem to have solved this by means of expensive machines, which give vouchers back.
But there must be something simpler.
A few of my thoughts.
Marking Chargeable Containers
All containers for which a deposit is made, should be clearly marked with symbol, which says that it is worth something to return.
Returning To Shops
Obviously, people will want to do this, but I suspect a lot of smaller shops will ask shoppers to take the empties elsewhere.
They might install a machine, but many shops couldn’t afford the expense.
Collecting For Charity Or Local Causes
Suppose, you had a simple steel bin with holes in the top, like those we had in Suffolk for bottles.
Anything that had the correct symbol could be put in the bin.
These bins would then be collected and sorted automatically at a large plant.
By weighing each bin and knowing its location and owner, it would be possible to apportion the refunds to the charity.
National charities might put recycling bins in car parks or prominent places.
But supposing, your area has a run down children’s playground, that everybody wants to improve.
A recycling bin is placed by the playground and everybody is asked to use it for bottles and other containers. All proceeds would go to the playground fund, with a collateral benefit, that the area of the playground wasn’t strewn with empty bottles.
Automatic Sorting Of Containers
If you have a large plant sorting the containers, it can do a better job, than the most expensive machine on the street.
- It would be able to sort plastic, glass and aluminium containers.
- I suspect technology exists to remove labels
- Glass would probably be washed and crushed.
- It could also sort out ordinary rubbish like fast food wrapping and boxes, newspapers and disposable nappies.
- Any washing water would be collected and reused.
The plant would calculate the various combination of materials and if the weight of the rubbish would known, could calculate the return.
Extending The System
There must be other containers, that are also recyclable. In my cupboard, I have a large glass mayonnaise jar, which would probably be recyclable if washed and the top is removed.
So perhaps the system could accept this bottle without its top. It would be washed and crushed, so it could be used instead of quarried aggregate.
Conclusion
There are much better ways to handle the charge on a drink container.
I would reckon, that some of the biggest recycling organisations in the UK are working on a solution, that benefits us all and is as widespread as possible.
My Father’s Politics
In a A Trip To The Berlin Olympic Stadium, I said this about my father’s politics.
My father hated both extreme-right and extreme-left politics with a vengeance and I can honestly say, that I never heard him tell a racist joke.
With the rows going on this morning about antisemitic elements in the Labour Party, I looked up Stalin and antisemitism in Wikipedia.
My father had a Jewish male line, but no religion of any kind, although the more I learn, his outlook on life and morals were fairly Jewish.
In the Battle of Cable Street, he was there to stop Oswald Mosley and his supporters marching through the East End.
I know he moved in left-wing Tory Party circles, nearly stood for Parliament against one of Mosley’s supporters, and once said he had been at the League of Nations in Geneva. But, he remained largely silent about what he did in the 1920s and 1930s.
But I do think his Jewish genes drove him to take up his strong centrist views, especially when you read about Stalin and the Jews.
It is one of my regrets in life, that I didn’t find out more about my father’s life, in what must have been exciting times for those, who thought about politics.
The Price Of Lust
Stormy Daniels once appeared in a video called The Price Of Lust.
I’ve no idea, how good it is from any perspective!
Is Donald Trump going to pay?
Will Trump Hit Stormy Weather?
I’ve just read this article on the BBC.
Hence the title of this post!
Will Danny Boyle Direct The Next Bond Film? Here’s What We Know So Far
The title of this post is the same as this article on the BBC web site.
Certainly today’s news gives lots of ideas for a plot.
Thoughts On Alcoholism
In the last month or so, I’ve done something that I’ve never done before in my life.
I’ve drunk perhaps half a bottle of beer when I’ve got up. Admittedly, I’d left the bottle half finished by my computer.
It was good.
In the 1960s, I could drink a lot of beer. I just seemed to need it.
About that time, I decided I needed to drink large amounts of fluids and swapped to tea and Coke.
My doctor understands my needs for fluids and the practice nurse has the same problem. The nurse puts it down to leaky skin, which he has.
I actually love walking in the rain, so that might help explain it. We all live by the laws of physics.
My father warned me off alcohol in a practical way, by giving me halves of Adnams down at Felixstowe Conservative Club, whilst we played snooker, when I was about fourteen.
My father drank a lot of fluids, but I never saw him drunk and most doctors would say he was a sensible drinker. Like me, he also drank a lot of tea!
He had a reason to control his drinking! His father had died from complications of being an alcoholic at 40, when my father was about twenty.
My grandfather had lived just around the corner from where I live now and my father had once told me, he had drunk large amounts of beer and had moved on to whisky.
Around 1900, there was very little to drink except beer, so did my grandfather’s need for fluids mean that he turned to what was available?
Now I like a good beer and know of its properties to slake a thirst when you’re dry. I’ve worked in foundries in the 1960s and beer was always available.
So is there a type of person, who needs a lot of fluids and if beer is available they turn to it. In some cases does this lead to alcoholism.
As to myself, I must have gluten-free beer and because I’m on Warfarin, I must keep my alcohol consumption down.
So I now drink a gluten-free beer, that is just 0.25 of a unit and tastes like real beer from Marks and Spencer.
But then it is real beer, as it is brewed in Southwold by Adnams.
My life has come full circle.
Hackney Wick Station And The Florida International University Pedestrian Bridge Collapse
The title of this post might seem a bit unusual, as the two locations are in different continents and thousands of miles apart.
But there is a connection, in that the new Hackney Wick station and the Florida International University bridge, were built using the same construction method called accelerated bridge construction.
There are some major differences.
- At Hackney Wick a short, fat subway was built alongside the railway and moved in using self-propelled modular transporters. In Florida a long thin span was installed , in a similar way.
- The Hackney Wick station subway, probably weighs a lot more than the pedestrian footbridge.
- The Hackney Wick subway and the platforms and track on top, was fully reinstated before trains could cross, whereas the Florida span was part of a cable-stay bridge, which hadn’t been completed.
- The Hackney Wick subway will be carrying trains of several hundred tons, whereas the Florida bridge will be carrying people.
It looks to me, that there has been some inaccurate calculations, which led to the collapse of the Florida International University bridge.
The Anonymous Widower 