Letters - Monday, November 29, 2021

Leading the way on hydrogen vehicles
Hydrogen vehiclesHydrogen vehicles
Hydrogen vehicles

Further to ‘Hydrogen is a better and greener option’ (Your Say, Gazette, November 24). JCB are poised to sell large hydrogen/air powered diggers, cranes, and so on by the end of next year.

They have found a way of powering a typical industrial internal diesel combustion engine by modifying the cylinder head and minor ancillaries to accept one per cent hydrogen and 99 per cent air.

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Battery power for these machines is not practical as it is too heavy and needs periodic charging from an onsite heavy duty power source.

This modified engine gives zero emissions with comparable power to a conventional diesel, the by-product is steam. The units are designed to run for at least 12 hours per day without need for a charge.

One advantage of this system is that most of the existing engines, gearboxes etc. can still be used, and service depots can retain existing infrastructure to seamlessly adapt to the phasing out of diesel. Factories can retain their workforce and suppliers.

Of course, the hydrogen still has to be produced and needs electricity for this. The industry is looking at solar farms, and wind turbines to supplement production, this fuel is categorised as green, as hydrogen comes from a renewable source. I was surprised to learn owners of turbines are paid millions to turn them off when over-capacity is reached, why not produce green hydrogen?

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Whether or not the JCB system will lend itself to our road vehicles is another matter, I think politics will no doubt play its part. Battery power is on the ascendency irrespective of its practicality or ethical supply of lithium/cobalt. Big business will want a return on their investment!

Mike Marlow

via email

IMMIGRATION

No wonder the UK is migrant magnet

The recent tragic death of 27 migrants has highlighted again the desperation felt by many Middle Eastern people who cross the English Channel seeking a better life.

The evil human smugglers tell them that life across the water is an ‘Eldorado’ before relieving each of them of around £3,000. This is often their life savings. The sum invariably means some family members are left behind.

The UK will continue to attract illegal migrants for two main reasons: there is no language problem, and migrants have few problems finding work.

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The number of illegal immigrants trying to enter the UK since 2013 has not dramatically changed, contrary to media headlines. What has changed is the method of travel. Until 2019 the migrants arrived at the Port of Calais and entered the UK in the back of lorries. It was Covid-19 and the sharp reduction in lorries entering the UK that forced the smugglers to turn to small boats and inflatables; many of them unseaworthy. This new mode of travel has led to the public perception of a massive increase in illegal immigration because it is much more visible.

It should be noted that intending migrants have no legal means of applying for entry to the UK. Hence the resort to illegal means that enriches the pockets of smugglers.

For over 20 years the world has been witnessing a new Odyssey. In 2000 the UN Secretary-general warned that global illegal migration would increase ‘very significantly’ but as usual few in the West took notice.

If we are to control this highly complex problem the rhetoric should be toned down – we are just as much to blame as France – joint border patrols put in place, and the childish point-scoring by our political parties confined to the dustbin.

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The northern economic hemisphere accounts for 90 per cent of world income despite having only 25 per cent of the world population. Much of the southern hemisphere is becoming poorer. In addition, it is suffering from endemic conflict. Unsurprisingly, the north is acting like a magnet for the dispossessed and wretched.

Given that many parts of Africa and the Middle East are a tinder box and high birth rates are increasing poverty, the flow of migrants will continue.

Dr Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys

POLITICS

Our lives no longer have any stability

We are living in strange and troubled times. The everyday things on which we could once rely are ceasing to exist and stability is steadily

being removed from everyday life.

We have a government which lurches from one crisis to another.

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A government which is completely out of touch with people and fails to recognise the everyday issues many people face, just to live.

As a United Kingdom, it appears that we can no longer agree on a policy regarding Covid-19, with Ireland, Scotland and Wales pursuing their own individual regulations. This is happening all over the world.

Things we took for granted such as social freedom are disappearing at an alarming rate. Changes that are far removed from anything we would have ever considered two years ago.

Anne Nightingale

via email

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