Potential Shortage of Fracking Sands

Potential Shortage of Fracking Sands

A short time ago, following an article in the February 2015 Issue of Materials World Magazine on  “Inside Fracking Fluids” I wrote a letter pointing out that it overlooked one of the most important constituents ” fracking sand”. The article is available on the internet  My letter was based on what I had read in an American […]

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A Claverton Group Think Tank Member Discusses the Real Efficiency of a CCGT

“55% efficient CCGTs” (David Olivier)  – no such thing.  The headline efficiencies cited now are 58% but they deliberately play a marketing trick in pretending that the latent heat of vaporisation in the wettish steam within the OCGT exhaust that is finally vented to atmosphere after passing through the heat exchanger is somehow doing useful […]

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What is Microgeneration? And what is the most cost effective in terms of CO2 reduction

© Jeremy Harrison:

The UK Government definition of Microgeneration[1] applies to a rather surprising mix of heat and power generating technologies with a thermal output below 45kWt or an electrical output of 50kWe. It covers electrical generation from wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and hydro, and heat generation from biomass, solar thermal and heat pumps as well as micro CHP which produces heat and power from renewable or fossil fuels. It is not just another term for small scale renewables, but comprises a portfolio of low carbon technologies.

There has been a tendency amongst advocates[2] and sceptics[3] alike to lump all Microgeneration technologies together, either as “all good” or “all bad”. This is particularly unhelpful when attempting to understand the potential contribution Microgeneration can make to UK energy strategy and it is important that we understand the particular characteristics and potential role of each technology.

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