The Aerosol Tales
When I left Liverpool University in 1968, I was very familiar with the use of products distributed in aerosol cans.
- I had used aerosol shaving cream, although about that time, I acquired my beard.
- I certainly used aerosol deodorant, as did most in the 1960s.
- Aerosol paints were common for covering scuffs and scratches in your car.
- Aerosols were often used to apply sun protection.
- Aerosols containing cream or a non-dairy alternative for culinary use were not unknown.
- Aweosol lubricants were starting to appear.
Although, I went to work for the chemical giant; ICI, at that time, I had no idea how an aerosol and its can worked.
As ICI at the time, ICI were major manufacturers of aerosol propellants, I quickly learned how they worked.
The Wikipedia entry for Aerosol Spray Dispenser gives a lot of history about aerosol cans and their propellants.
The Wikipedia entry for Propellant has this paragraph describing propellants of the last century.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were once often used as propellants, but since the Montreal Protocol came into force in 1989, they have been replaced in nearly every country due to the negative effects CFCs have on Earth’s ozone layer. The most common replacements of CFCs are mixtures of volatile hydrocarbons, typically propane, n-butane and isobutane. Dimethyl ether (DME) and methyl ethyl ether are also used. All these have the disadvantage of being flammable. Nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide are also used as propellants to deliver foodstuffs (for example, whipped cream and cooking spray). Medicinal aerosols such as asthma inhalers use hydrofluoroalkanes (HFA): either HFA 134a (1,1,1,2,-tetrafluoroethane) or HFA 227 (1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoropropane) or combinations of the two. More recently, liquid hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) propellants have become more widely adopted in aerosol systems due to their relatively low vapor pressure, low global warming potential (GWP), and nonflammability.
Note that the whole range of these chemicals, effect the ozone layer.
Rocksavage Works
ICI’s Rocksavage Works, was an integrated chemical plant by the Mersey,.
- It made all types of CFCs for aerosols and other purposes.
- It also made the fire suppressant and extinguisher; Bromochlorodifluoromethane or BCF.
- Alongside BCF, it made the anaesthetic Halothane or as ICI called it Fluothane.
- The plant was a poisonous place with all those bromine, chlorine and fluorine compounds.
- Despite this, the plant had a remarkable safety record.
I had the pleasure of working at the plant and it was where, I had most of my excellent Health and Safety training, from the amazing site foreman; Charlie Akers.
Some of the wisdom he distributed has proved invaluable in aiding my stroke recovery.
I suspect that since the signing of the Montreal Protocol, the plant has changed greatly or has even been closed.
All that appears to be left is the 800 MW gas-fired Rocksavage power station and a Facebook page.
Aerosol Baked Beans
In those days, I worked most of the time in a lab at Runcorn Heath.
One of the labs near to where I generally worked, in the large research complex, was a lab, where new aerosol products were developed and tested.
One of the standard jokes about that lab, was that they were working on aerosol baked beans. They said, they would develop the product, even of they had to eject them from the can one at a time.
Gift Time
One afternoon, the boss of the aerosol development lab came through with a tray of goodies.
On the tray, which was much like a cinema usherette’s ice cream tray of the sixties was a whole host of partly-labeled aerosol cans. Only clues to what the product might be were written on the outside in felt-tip pen.
I grabbed two, one of which was marked something like lubricating oil and the other was just marked hand cream, which I of course gave to my new wife; C.
We were married for nearly forty years and often, when she bought hand cream, she would remark, that it wasn’t of the same standard as the little can I brought home from work.
It appears to me, that one of the world’s top cosmetic companies and ICI were trying to create the world’s best and probably most expensive hand creams.
DMW
Fast-forward nearly twenty years and I was approached by Lloyds Bank about two individuals, who had developed an aerosol valve, that instead of using CFCs or other ozone-depleting chemicals.
- By the exploitation of the nether end of fluid dynamics, the propellant of the aerosol was nothing more harmless than pure nitrogen.
- I formed a company called DMW with the two inventors.
- John Gummer, who at the time was my MP and Environment Minister, knew of the aerosol valve and he took the details to Montreal.
So did a device developed in Suffolk help push through the Montreal Protocol?
Osbourne Reynolds
I also wonder, if we had some supernatural help. At the time, I lived in the family home of Osbourne Reynolds.
- He did a lot of the early work on fluid dynamics.
- He was the first UK Professor of Engineering.
- He was professor of Engineering at Manchester University for nearly forty years.
- The Reynolds number is named after him.
- Remarkably, students are sill taught on the equipment Reynolds designed.
- Reynolds was certainly one of our great Victorian scientists.
This Wikipedia entry gives more details of his remarkable life and work.
After Montreal the aerosol valve was sold to Johnson & Johnson.
DMW continued to develop other products and we had one, who no-one had any idea about how it worked.
So I discussed it with the Reynolds’s expert at Manchester University and he said he had no idea either.
But he was absolutely certain, that Reynolds would have known.
Sunak’s Terrible Decision To Call The Election
As a control engineer and mathematical modeller, whose software planned many of the world’s major projects in the last thirty years of the last century, I feel that Rishi Sunak’s decision to call the election, when he did, was one of the worst political decisions of a UK Prime Minister in the last century.
Consider.
- Inflation was coming down and it was likely interest rates could fall soon.
- The Rwanda plan could have started to work.
- A new round of wind farm Contracts for Difference for wind farms are due to be announced soon and signs, that there could be a large amount of wind to add to the future pipeline could be a record. I wrote about it in UK Can Secure Record Number Of Offshore Wind Farms In This Year’s Auction For New Projects.
- There is 4 GW of new offshore wind to be commissioned in the next eighteen months.
When, he called the election, I believed Sunak had a very large rabbit to pull out of a hat. But there was none!
I wrote Where’s The Plan, Rishi?, because I felt these must be something more to come.
Conclusion
Now Starmer and the Labour Party, will reap all the benefits of selling Europe and principally, the Germans, the electricity and hydrogen they need.
Debenhams Oxford – May 27th, 2024
These pictures show the current state of the Debenhams store in Oxford.
This will be the first development of those, that I talked about in Crown Estate To Spend £1.5bn On New Laboratories.
- I have deliberately shown pictures of the Junction, where the Debenhams building occupies the North-West corner.
- There is a Waterstones opposite the Debenhams building, on a busy junction between George and Magdalen Streets.
- There is a bus information display on the corner.
- There are a lot of chain eateries and a pub; the Wig & Pen.
These are a few thoughts.
Does the Debenhams Building Have Any Car Parking?
I would doubt it, but there may be a need to bring in large equipment.
Taxis To And From The Station
Note.
- I took a black taxi from the station to just outside the Debenhams building and it cost me the princely sum of £5,20.
- I also noted there was a rank at the rear of the building.
- In both locations, taxis were ready to roll.
That looked reasonable.
Buses To And From The Station
Staff at Oxford station, assured me that buses were available, but due to all the road works and Bank Holiday chaos, I suspect it could be improved, when the station upgrade is complete.
Walking To The Station
I took this second set of pictures as I walked from the Debenhams building back to the station.
Note.
- I walked from the junction by Debenhams, along George Street.
- It was a fairly straight line and level.
- There were no signposts between Debenhams and the station.
- There was quite a bit of blocked traffic.
- The route could do with some improvement like refurbished pavements and a few direction signs.
It took me about twenty-four minutes and at 76, I walked it easily.
On entering the station, I walked straight on to the platform for my train back to Reading, which was two minutes late.
Cycling
I suspect that many will cycle to work in the Debenhams building, as it is in Oxford.
But then, I suspect the Crown Estate, their architects and builders will know the appropriate provision to make.
Is The Debenhams Building At A Good Location?
When I was around 23, I used to reverse commute to ICI in Welwyn Garden City.
This involved.
- A ten-minute walk from St. John’s Wood to Chalk Farm tube station.
- A Northern Line train to King’s Cross station.
- A suburban train to Welwyn Garden City station.
- A fifteen-minute walk to my place of work.
St. John’s Wood to Oxford would involve.
- A fourteen-minute bus ride to St. Paddington station.
- A suburban train to Oxford station.
- A twenty-minute walk to my place of work.
A Brompton bicycle would help.
Knowing Cambridge as I do, the Debenhams building would be very well-located, if it were in Cambridge in a similar location, with respect to the railway station.
I feel that the Debenhams building passes the location test.
Nicki Minaj Freed After Arrest At Amsterdam Airport
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC,
This is the sub-heading.
American rapper Nicki Minaj has been freed by police after being detained at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
These three paragraphs give more details.
Dutch police posted on X: “We have just released a 41-year-old American woman whom we arrested this afternoon at Schiphol on suspicion of exporting soft drugs.”
“The suspect was fined and can continue her journey.”
The artist had been due to fly to Manchester for a concert at the Co-op Live venue on Saturday evening.
Note.
- I think, she has been very lucky.
- She has been very disrespectable to her fans.
- As someone, who lost his son, partly because he smoked both cannabis and tobacco, I find her behaviour disgusting.
Let’s hope the Border Force send her back to Amsterdam, so that she realises the consequences of her stupid behaviour.
Crown Estate To Spend £1.5bn On New Laboratories
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
These three paragraphs introduce the Crown Estate’s plan.
The Crown Estate is to spend £1.5 billion over the next decade building more laboratories nationwide and will start by redeveloping the old Debenhams store in Oxford city centre.
The King’s property company, which looks after the royal family’s £16 billion historic land portfolio, will invest £125 million to buy the former department store and will turn it into laboratory space.
The building has been empty for omore than three years, having closed down in early 2021 after Debenhams collapsed during the pandemic. The Crown has bought a long leasehold of the store from DTZ Investors, the freeholder, which is keeping the street-level retail units. Subject to planning, construction is expected to start at the site next year, with the labs expected to be fully operational in 2027 or 2028.
This looks very much like a smaller version of British Land’s plan for the Euston Tower, which I wrote about in British Land Unveils Plans To Transform London’s Euston Tower Into A Life Sciences And Innovation Hub.
These are my thoughts.
Helping Start-Ups
I have been involved with perhaps half a dozen start-up ventures. Two were very successful and the others generally scraped along or just failed.
One common theme, was the lack of small convenient premises, where perhaps up to a dozen people could work.
- I don’t know Oxford well, but I would assume that the Debenhams site, is good for public transport and cycle parking.
- I also hope there’s a good real ale pub nearby, for some productive group thinking!
If this venture from Crown Estate helps start-ups to get over the first difficult hurdle, then it will be a development to be welcomed.
Location, Location, Location
It has been said, that the three most important things in property development are location, location and location.
This 3D Google Map shows the approximate location of the Debenhams building.
Note.
- The red arrow indicates a pub called the Wig and Pen , which is on the opposite side of George Street to the Debenhams building.
- The railway with its excellent connections runs North-South down the Western edge of the map.
- I estimate that walking distance to the station is about 500-600 metres.
I shall be going to Oxford in the next couple of days to take some pictures of the building and the walk.
We Can’t Have Too Many Laboratories
The British and the sort of people we attract to these isles seem to be born innovators and inventors.
My father’s male line is Jewish and my paternal great-great-great-grandfather had to leave his home city of Königsberg in East Prussia for the sole reasons he was eighteen, male and Jewish. As both Königsberg and London, were on the trading routes of the Hanseatic League, he probably just got on a ship. As he was a trained tailor, he set up in business in Bexley.
My mother’s male line is Huguenot and somewhere in the past, one of her ancestors left France for England. My grandfather was an engraver, which is a common Huguenot craft. Intriguingly, my mother had very French brown eyes.
Why did my ancestors come here?
It was probably a choice between escape to the UK or die!
This Wikipedia entry, which us entitled History of the Jews in Königsberg, gives a lot of detail.
Note.
- My ancestor left Königsberg around 1800.
- He probably brought my coeliac disease with him.
- In 1942, many of the Jews remaining in Königsberg were sent to the Nazi concentration camps.
- About 2,000 Jews remain in Königsberg, which is now Kaliningrad in Russia.
I am an atheist, but some years ago, I did a computing job for a devout Orthodox Jewish oncologist and he felt my personal philosophy was very much similar to his.
This Wikipedia entry, which is entitled Huguenots, gives a brief history of the Huguenots.
Whatever you’re attitude to immigration, you can’t deny these facts.
- Immigration increases the population.
- As the population increases, we’re going to need more innovation to maintain a good standard of living.
- Just as we need more places to house immigrants, we also need more places, where they can work.
- Immigration brings in those with all types of morals, sexualities and intelligences.
- Like the Jews and Huguenots of over two centuries ago, some emigrants will dream of using their skills and intelligence to start a successful business.
- It is likely, that some immigrants, who came here to study, might also want to stay on and seek employment here, using the skills they’ve learned and acquired. Some may even start successful businesses.
I also wonder, if immigration is difficult, does this mean, that the intelligent and resourceful are likely to be successful migrants. I heard this theory from a Chinese lady, who started her immigration to the UK, by swimming from mainland China to Hong Kong.
I feel, that unless we are prepared to ban immigration completely, not allow students to come here and study and be prepared to accept our current standard of living for the future, then we will need more laboratories and suitable places for entrepreneurs to start new businesses.
Conclusion
The Crown Estate appears to be getting more entrepreneurial.
In UK Unveils GBP 50 Million Fund To Boost Offshore Wind Supply Chain, I describe how they6 are using funds to accelerate the building of wind farms in theCetic Sea.
Has the King changed the boss or the rules?
Or have they employed a world-class mathematical modeller?
It is my experience, that modelling financial systems, can bring surprising results.
UK Breakthrough Could Slash Emissions From Cement
The title of this post. is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
Scientists say they’ve found a way to recycle cement from demolished concrete buildings.
These five paragraphs outline, why cement is such an environmental problem.
Cement is the modern world’s most common construction material, but it is also a huge source of planet-warming gas emissions.
That is because of the chemical reactions when you heat limestone to high temperatures by burning fossil fuels.
Recycling cement would massively reduce its carbon footprint. Researchers say that if they switched to electric-powered furnaces, and used renewable energy like wind and solar rather than fossil fuels, that could mean no greenhouse gases would be released at all.
And that would be a big deal. Cement forms the foundation of the modern economy, both literally and metaphorically.
It is what binds the sand and aggregate in concrete together, and concrete is the most widely used material on the planet after water.
If cement was a country, it would be the third biggest source of emissions after China and the US, responsible for 7.5% of human-made CO2.
This article shows how by applying chemical magic to two effectively unrelated processes; the recycling of steel and the recycling of concrete to make new cement, very high rewards are possible.
Cambridge University are calling their new product electric cement.
As large amounts of electricity are used in an arc furnace, to produce the two products
These paragraphs outline the innovative Cambridge process.
Cement is made by heating limestone to up 1600 Celsius in giant kilns powered by fossil fuels.
Those emissions are just the start. The heat is used to drive carbon dioxide from the limestone, leaving a residue of cement.
Add both these sources of pollution together and it is estimated that about a tonne of carbon dioxide is produced for every tonne of cement.
The team of scientists,, has found a neat way to sidestep those emissions.
It exploits the fact that you can reactivate used cement by exposing it to high temperatures again.
The chemistry is well-established, and it has been done at scale in cement kilns.
The breakthrough is to prove it can be done by piggybacking on the heat generated by another heavy industry – steel recycling.
When you recycle steel, you add chemicals that float on the surface of the molten metal to prevent it reacting with the air and creating impurities. This is known as slag.
The Cambridge team spotted the composition of used cement is almost exactly the same as the slag used in electric arc furnaces.
They have been trialling the process at a small-scale electric arc furnace at the Materials Processing Institute in Middlesbrough.
These are my thoughts.
The Only Inputs Are Steel Scrap, Green Electricity And Used Cement
Consider.
- We probably need to increase the percentage of steel scrap we collect.
- Gigawatts of green electricity in a few years, will be available in those places like Port of Ardersier, Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Teesside, where large amounts of steel will be needed.
- I can envisage large steel users having their own hybrid electric cement/electric arc furnace plants.
- Used cement would be collected and brought to the plants.
- Years ago, I used to live next door to an old World War II airfield. The farmer who owned the airfield, told me, that the concrete was his pension, as when he needed money, he called a company, who crushed it up for aggregate.
I can see a whole new integrated industry being created.
Conclusion
This could be one of the best inventions since sliced bread.
An Early General Election
One thing that worries me about an early election, is it gives Putin less time to plan and execute his dirty work.
So he might do something a lot more extreme!
So make sure your cybersecurity is up to date!
The Problem Of Waste Plastic And Why Pyrolysis Oil Might Just Contain The Answer
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Chemical Engineer.
These three paragraphs introduce the article.
One of the few technologies that can break down unrecyclable post-consumer waste plastic, pyrolysis is fast becoming a potential recycling route for companies trying to reduce their waste output.
The world produces around 450m t/y of plastic, but only 9% is recycled, with most waste ending up in landfill. Pyrolysis, which involves heating the plastic at extremely high temperatures in the absence of oxygen, breaks down the molecules to produce pyrolysis oil or gas. The oil can then be used to develop new products.
George Huber, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is leading a research team that is investigating the chemistry of pyrolysis oil and its use in polyolefin recycling.
This is a quote from George Huber
Waste plastic should be viewed as a resource we can use to make plastics and other chemicals. We should not be landfilling or burning it, we should be reusing the carbon in waste plastics.
I very much agree with what he said.
These are my thoughts.
Pyrolysis
The Wikipedia entry for pyrolysis starts with this paragraph.
The pyrolysis (or devolatilization) process is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures, often in an inert atmosphere.
This paragraph describes the technique’s use in the chemical industry.
The process is used heavily in the chemical industry, for example, to produce ethylene, many forms of carbon, and other chemicals from petroleum, coal, and even wood, or to produce coke from coal. It is used also in the conversion of natural gas (primarily methane) into hydrogen gas and solid carbon char, recently introduced on an industrial scale. Aspirational applications of pyrolysis would convert biomass into syngas and biochar, waste plastics back into usable oil, or waste into safely disposable substances.
I came across pyrolysis in my first job after graduating, when I worked at ICI Runcorn.
ICI were trying to make acetylene in a process plant they had bought from BASF. Ethylene was burned in an atmosphere, that didn’t have much oxygen and then quenched in naphtha. This should have produced acetylene , but all it produced was tonnes of black soot, that it spread all over Runcorn.
I shared an office with a guy, who was using a purpose-built instrument to measure acetylene in the off-gas from the burners.
When he discovered that the gas could be in explosive limits, ICI shut the plant down. The Germans didn’t believe this and said, that anyway it was impossible to do the measurement.
ICI gave up on the process and demolished their plant, but sadly the German plant blew up.
I would assume we have progressed with pyrolysis in the intervening fifty years.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a top-ranked American University and is part of my daily life, as the Warfarin, that stops me having another stroke was developed at the University in the 1940s.
Conclusion
The article is a must-read and I feel that my past experience says, that George Huber and his team could be on to something.
I wish them the best of luck.
A Manifesto For Liverpool City Region
The title of this post is the same as that of this document from the Heseltine Institute of Public Policy, Practice and Place.
The Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place. describes itself like this on its home page on the University of Liverpool web site.
An interdisciplinary research institute focusing on the development of sustainable and inclusive cities and city regions.
The main sections of the document are as follows.
- How Can We Reduce Health Inequalities?
- How Do We Meet Our Net Zero Goals?
- How Can We Address The Cost Of Living Crisis?
- How Can We Deliver Sustainable Mobility?
- How Can We Address The Challenges And Meet The Opportunities Of Artificial Intelligence?
- How Do We Build Enough New Homes In The Right Places?
- How Should We Care For The Most Vulnerable In Society?
- How Can We Maintain A Vibrant And Inclusive Cultural Life?
- How Do We Restore Trust In Democracy?
These are nine very important questions and the document is worth a good read.
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Makes Substantial Investment In Australia’s MCi Carbon
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Carbon Herald.
This is the introductory paragraph.
MCi Carbon, an Australian clean technology platform revolutionising the carbon recycling industry, proudly announces the addition of esteemed Japanese investor, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, to its investor roster. This significant investment from the Japanese giant, with assets under management totalling $617 billion marks a pivotal moment in MCi Carbon’s journey towards global leadership in carbon capture and utilisation and underscores the growing international recognition of Australia’s role in the transition to a zero-carbon world economy.
I believe that MCi Carbon, will be a very successful company.
I first wrote about this company in March 2021 in Energy Minister Angus Taylor Launches $50 million Fund For Carbon Capture Projects.
The Anonymous Widower 