Seminars
John Raquet, owner of the Spiritus Consulting and gasworld and CryoGas International magazines, presented a formidable analysis of the industrial gas business, with a special update on helium supplies from the US. Phil Pritchard, founder of Deep Sea Recovery and inventor of Controllable Buoyancy Systems, then took the audience through the fascinating story of his business, harnessing the buoyancy from vaporizing liquid cryogens, with an intriguing animation illustrating a “subsea forklift” assembling an underwater pipeline.
In the afternoon session chaired by David Cooke from Thames Cryogenics, Paul Maynard of Quantum Production Ltd. gave a talk on the lethal dangers of asphyxiation in depleted oxygen conditions, highlighting the need for procedures, training and appropriate equipment. Joachim Roediger of Stöhr Armaturen then gave a very thorough review of the characteristics required for cryogenic valves, with illustrations on the range of highly engineered products available from his company.
James Macnaghten’s talk focused on the Pumped Heat Electricity Storage [PHES] systems being developed by Isentropic Ltd., which involve argon gas and temperatures as low as -160˚C. He also described the concept of exploiting the low temperature side of PHES in MgB2 superconducting electric power equipment, such as substations.
Finally, the chairman of Dearman Engine Company, Jeremy North, gave a presentation that illustrated plans for the new Center for Cryogenic Energy Storage in Birmingham, and the “Cool-E” collaboration to put a liquid air engine in a truck. Presentations from Cluster Day can be found at http://2csa.us/ab.
Lab Visits
Cluster Day attendees had the option of a short lab visit as part of the event. Some took a special tour of an international center for mouse genetics run by MRC-Harwell, while other attendees made visits to the Diamond Light Source, RAL Space, and the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) Hall to view one of the superconducting magnets under development for MICE.
Exhibition
Lunch was provided in the exhibition area and was hosted by the following exhibitors: British Cryogenic Council; Cryomech; Cryox-STFC; Central Compressor Consultants; Enterprise Europe Network; Hall Scientific; Kelvin Technology; LOT-Quantum Design; Mach-Tech; Nexans; Oerlikon Leybold; Oxford Instruments; Peco Europe; Proactive Gas Safety; Quantum Cryogenics; RUAG Space; Stöhr Armaturen; Sumitomo Cryogen-ics; Tamo; Torr Scientific; VacTechniche; and Wessington Cryogenics.
Posters
There were ten participants in the new poster session at Cluster Day this year. The winning poster award was presented to Dr. Shane Akbar from EADS Astrium by Dr. Wendell Bailey from Southampton University.
