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News from the British Cryogenic Cluster |
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December 2013 |
We hope as many Readers as possible can look back on a Good Year - if not, have a Great Christmas Break and forget about it ! We hope B Cryo has given you an occasional Good Cryogenic Moment this year, but do let us have any suggestions for change in 2014.
Happy Holidays &
Very Merry Christmas from Team B Cryo !
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Welcome to New Cluster Members...
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| What more appropriate new member could we have at Christmas but Richard Clarke’s 4He Solutions consulting business ? Richard is one of the Cluster Heroes, making sure we’re better informed on Helium Supply than most - and he’s scheduled to speak on May 29th (see below). Welcome Richard !
We also have two new International Corporate Members of the British Cryogenics Council : Sunpower [owned by Ametek] and Stöhr Armaturen - who have been regular participants in Cryogenic Cluster Day [Joachim Roediger gave a talk this year]. Welcome to Sunpower and Stöhr ! We’re delighted they want to take part in British Cryogenic activity ! More information on all these new Members on the BCC website [ www.bcryo.org.uk ].
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As mentioned above, following Marcel ter Brake’s initiative in October, calling for European Cryogenics to unite, we’re inviting the European Cryogenic Community to gather at Rutherford Appleton on May 29th. Supported by the European Enterprise Network, we’re planning talks by Professor Ralph Scurlock, by Graham Machin from NPL on the InK project [Implementing the new Kelvin] as well as Richard Clarke - more detail to follow in the New Year.
Dearman Engine report that shakedown testing is proceeding prior to handing an engine over to MIRA for installation in a refrigerated truck. They’re also developing a high-yield, low-grade, heat recovery system. Leeds is taking a leading role in Liquid Air in cities. Looks like there is similar interest in California - putting Liquid Nitrogen in ‘Reefers,’ ie Refrigerated Trucks.
Cryogenics Beats Wrinkles
For a reported £500,
Harley Street's Dr Yannis Alexandrides
will give you the Cryogenic equivalent of Botox, a procedure called Iovera,
known colloquially as ‘Frotox.’
Cryogenic
Valves and Valve Testing
YPS
Valves in Pudsey make cryogenic valves and undertake specialist in-house
testing, including cryogenic tests to BS 6364, with a facility acquired from
Leeds University. |
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| Cryogenics in Sport
Rugby
Players Sleep Better with Cryotherapy
We’re not making it up. England Rugby League Captain Kevin
(Sinfield) says so to BOC about their World First Mobile Cryotherapy
Chamber.
News in
Science
Squeezing the
Magnet
Go to the UK News from CERN
site, go to Issue 34 and find how Oxford Instruments squeeze an 11 Tesla
Niobium Tin magnet into the space where 8T went before.
Bose-Einstein
Simulation
Scientists in Nottingham are helping study BECs with eventual application
in atomic clocks and accelerometers used in navigation.
Nobody Wants Us
...
Quantum Bits are cooled to near Absolute Zero to minimise exposure to
thermal noise, but Scientist are now making them survive
longer at room temperature ie without cryogenics !
NASA v ITER
ITER were taken to task for claiming their cryostat was the biggest high vacuum chamber
ever. They concede that accolade to
NASA -
but still insist ITER’s is more complex ... ! |
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News in LNG
US Shale Gas continues to rock the boat. INEOS say importing it [in liquefied form] is part of the Grangemouth survival plan. The price of gas is increasingly less linked to the price of oil and more to hubs like ‘The National Balancing Point’ in the UK. Price seasonality may decline too, if the US starts exporting significant amounts of LNG - demand from big buyers like Japan is strongest in summer. Arguments on price are however reported to be delaying investment in LNG projects. Some voices argue caution. Mitsui for example, has defended oil-linked prices for the certainty they provide for the huge long term investments required on LNG projects. Gazprom also appears reluctant to unhitch gas from oil, despite market pressure - Poland is moving forward with an LNG import terminal on the Baltic coast. Lithuania gets all of its gas from Russia and is doing the same. Sakhalin Energy meanwhile recently celebrated the 700th cargo from Russia’s first LNG plant, opened in 2009. Singapore LNG Role Asia accounts for ¾ of global LNG demand and is expected to grow faster than elsewhere. Singapore is already Asia’s largest hub for trading crude oil, iron ore and coal. Their city-state investment company’s Pavilion Energy, set up in April to invest in the LNG supply chain, has bought a stake in Tanzanian LNG prospects from UK’s Ophir Energy, underlining ambitions to lead in LNG too.
China
The China National Offshore Oil Corporation is examining viability of a $7.5bn LNG export project near Prince Rupert, west coast Canada. They already owns shale gas deposits there.
Helium Leak Detector for Christmas ?  Call [01372 737310] or e-mail our friends at Oerlikon Leybold before Dec 20 for Special End-of-Year Offers (quoting cat number 250002v01).
BBC - Done it Again ! The BBC have rightly got into trouble again with BCGA for fooling around with squeaky helium voices, but the rest of the broadcast is really worth the 17 minutes of air time [Thanks to Richard Clarke]
Harley Dome Helium Production at Harley Dome in Utah (a field discovered in 1925) has begun with IACX technology extracting helium, representing 7% of a mainly nitrogen deposit. |
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Cryo Biz
Research on the Cryogenic Equipment Market
This
Research puts the market at $11 bn in 2011, led by tanks, valves, then
vaporisers and pumps. China is the biggest
single market. By gas, Nitrogen is most
important and LNG the fastest growing.
Half Year Results at Oxford
Instruments 
OI say they’re
bouncing back after an early dip in 2013/4. TritonULT dilution refrigerator sales are going well. Shipments of Superconducting Wire for ITER went
mainly in the prior year. And they’ve
developed improved methods of distinguishing beef, lamb, pork & horse !
Plan ‘14 Cubed’ runs
to March. In future you can expect to
hear more ‘Nano-Bio’ - analysis & manipulation of organic
molecules - OI has reached agreement on a bid for Andor Technologies, taking them into the optical domain at 176 m, for a listed company, this is bigger and more complicated than previous OI acquisitions. Congratulations to OI !
Drop By in Dubai 
Maybe
you were there, but you were invited to drop by in Dubai, when Wessington Cryogenics took part in the gasworld
Middle East Conference earlier this month.
By the
way Wessington's
latest newsletter bravely stepped into the ‘Definition of Cryogenics’
minefield with a link to a 2002
article by Ray Radebaugh.
Thank You  Yan Couper-Harris at Appletree Marketing
has suffered enough and moved on. We should share one memorable quote from Yan : “I am thankful no one died in the making of this newsletter.”
Event for
the Diary
The next BCGA
Conference will be held 10th April in Manchester.  
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