Germany calls crisis meet over Shell North Sea platforms by Staff Writers Berlin (AFP) Oct 16, 2019 Germany said Wednesday it had called a special meeting of international partners this week to pressure Royal Dutch Shell to remove old rigs containing crude oil in the North Sea. An environment ministry spokesman said Berlin had convened signatory countries of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) on Friday in London. "Germany finds it absolutely unacceptable that these crude oil quantities remain in these structures," said the spokesman, Stephan Gabriel Haufe, citing a "danger for the environment". "That is why we have made our objections to this known." He said the participants at the special meeting -- the first of its kind -- would "insist" Shell dismantle the rigs. The OSPAR convention groups Belgium, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain along with Luxembourg and Switzerland. Greenpeace campaigners on Monday boarded Shell's Brent Alpha and Bravo platforms, which lie northeast of Scotland's Shetland Islands and are no longer operational, to protest what Greenpeace said were threats to the environment. The group claimed that Shell's decommissioning plans would leave portions of four Brent oil platforms at sea with some 640,000 cubic metres of oily water and 40,000 cubic metres of oily sediment, containing an estimated 11,000 tonnes of oil. Shell responded in a statement received by AFP that it has spent 10 years conducting in-depth research into decommissioning the Brent platforms -- and added that its recommendations were the result of more than 300 scientific and technical studies. dlc/hmn/wai
New catalyst could generate hydrogen in a commercial device Menlo Park CA (SPX) Oct 15, 2019 Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have shown for the first time that a cheap catalyst can split water and generate hydrogen gas for hours on end in the harsh environment of a commercial device. The electrolyzer technology, which is based on a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), has potential for large-scale hydrogen production powered by renewable energy, but it has been held back in part by the high cost of the precious metal ca ... read more
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |