Re: British Steel Industry etc

I am talking about toxic gases from steel works not power stations. are they as toxic as the ones that come out of your arse?

Re: British Steel Industry etc

As an ex power station worker I have to say this is wrong. There are a lot of toxic gases produced by a coal fired power station. The most important is sulphur dioxide, one of the important jobs of the boiler operator is to ensure that the rear end temperature of the boiler doesn't fall below a certain value otherwise the acid produced (a combination of water and sulphur dioxide) will condense and destroy the arse end of your boiler. If the boiler is properly operated then the sulphuric acid is released into the atmosphere where it can end up as acid rain.

Then there are the chemicals injected into the gas flow to aid the dust particles to clump for easy removal (though it has to be said this is done less now)

BTW it is water vapour that you see coming out of power station's cooling towers and nothing to do with the power cycle; steam is invisible and is recycled. all the power stations I worked in used sea water for cooling and didn't have cooling towers. Something like 50% of the energy produced by the coal is lost in the cooling process.

As for steel works (where I spend the last 17 years of my working life) most (if not all) of the toxic gases they produce in the iron and steel making process (coal oven's gas and blast furnace) gas are actually captured and used to fire boilers and you could argue they are less toxic than power station emmissions.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

Hi

It has naff all to do with the EU and green taxes imposed by them, you are barking up the wrong tree.

It is entirely a fault of our own making.

TATA have invested heavily in their plant in Holland, which is also in the EU and where they are switching production to.

Holland has higher green taxes than in the UK, yet their electricity prices for industry are considerably lower than here in the UK.

It is all down to the higher costs of producing electricity here in the UK.

The facts are here

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statist..._kWh)_YB15.png

Holland has no coal mines, but has built some new coal fired power stations, it imports coal.

It is perfectly possible for the UK to have built modern, efficient, coal fired power stations like Holland has done, and for these power stations to meet emission standards.

This is not Rocket Science.

We have had decades of selling off our Energy Production and Transmission as well as our Industry and a chronic underinvestment in Power Stations.

We are having to ask the French nicely to build us a new nuclear Power Station because we are so broke we cannot afford to build it ourselves.

The Chinese are providing much of the money for this, lending it to the French Government, so realistically we do not want to upset the Chinese by imposing even higher tariffs on their steel as they may then take their ball home and pull out of the deal.

Our Coal fired Power Stations are decades old, very inefficient and in the wrong places.

If we were to start now, we are looking at 8 to 10 years to get new, efficient ones up and running and even that time scale would mean massive Compulsory Purchase Orders and a suspension of any planning laws.

I cannot see that happening, so we are where we are.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

Hi

Thanks for your excellent post.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

Bugger me! I didn't know that......complicated isn't it....

Re: British Steel Industry etc

It appears that if we search the Internet we can find all kinds of facts to back up our claims. We are vastly overestimating how much pollution that Steel processing and Power generation actually send in to the atmosphere compared to some natural contributors i.e. Volcanoes and wild fires. We all benefit from the production of Steel but as long as it's produced in far off lands that seems to be okay. Nothing in this world is produced without some kind of pollution, indeed, just being alive produces CO2 that is supposedly bad for the planet, and don't think that solar panels and wind turbines come without cost. We try to keep a balance but as populations increase demand will outstrip supply. As far as the steel industry goes it looks possible it will leave Britain in favour of Holland or China, as Swim points out: It will follow a long line of industries leaving these shores to be done more cheaply elsewhere. So what happens to Britain, we become the lodging house of Europe where foreigners who can afford to buy overpriced properties in the large cities ease out all the locals to live in the suburbs miles away from their jobs which will probably be taxi and bus drivers, street cleaners and road repairers.
Isn't it time we took care of ourselves? Or shall we leave things to the EU and it's attempt at world domination?
Sometimes I despair!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/eart...6-billion.html

Re: British Steel Industry etc

I admire the Tata group. Look how they turned round the ailing Jaguar/ Land Rover companies and made them profitable again.
If Tata can't save the British steel industry then, l don't know who can.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

Of course it is.

Not only did we agree to join the EU and agreed with its subsequent rule modifications, we do everything they tell us to without question, whereas other EU state ignore what they don't agree with.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

Hi

Thanks for your post.

The Green Taxes referred to in the Telegraph are not Green Taxes at all, they go to general taxation, road fund tax and petrol and diesel tax where there long before Climate Change was even heard of.

The only Green Tax in the Article is actually on Renewable Energy costs.

The UK is unique in this, all other EU Countries use this tax to invest in more efficient Energy Production, newer and more efficient Power Stations and renewables.

It is for that reason that their production costs are lower and their industry more competitive.

Dutch electricity costs to industry will soon have fallen by 20%, our's hasn't.

We have wasted that money, not invested it.

Renewables, wind and solar cost a lot to install, but from then on they produce very cheap electricity, the same applies to new efficient coal powered stations.

We cannot blame the EU for that.

We also cannot blame the EU for our very high taxes on diesel, transportation costs are much higher here in the UK, which again puts our industry at a disadvantage.

Where I live, we average 70 artics a day going to the EU, exports, they all fill up at Adinkerke with diesel, much cheaper.

I am currently based in Poland, in a place called Piotrków Trybunalski, famous for two things, the most secure Prison there is and a massive glass factory.

The glass factory was bought 10 years ago by an English Company and closed, manufacture shifted to the UK.

The well known English Company, Pilkingtons, was subsequently sold to Nippon Sheet Glass.

The Polish Government has used it's Green Taxes to invest in two things, an enormous coal fired Power Station and massive wind farms in the area, very cheap electricity for industry.

Glass Manufacture is very Energy Intensive, a major part of the costs.

Nippon Sheet Glass is restructuring, Europe accounts for about 30% of it's sales.

Want to bet on where it will be shifting it's plate glass manufacturing to?

In or out of the EU will make absolutely no difference.

Re: British Steel Industry etc

How very true JBR, in relation to your last sentence.

Other EU Countries do ignore things.

France evicted 50,000 Roma, no problem.

However the EU did not tell us to sell our Industry to Foreign Countries did they?

We did that all by ourselves.