Food, Fuel and Plastic from pollution

Carbon is used for many things and a lot of that carbon is acquired from oil, it makes a lot of sense to use Carbon obtained from direct air capture to make those products.

Plastics are some of the most common materials over 311 million tonnes are various plastics are produced every year, of that 230 million tonnes is carbon.

It is not a vast  amount as just under 3% of global CO2 output, the equivalent of 33.8 million mature trees. One of the problems is in breaking the CO2 bonds recently a new Technique doubles conversion of CO2 to plastic component.

NASA long had an ambition to turn astronauts CO2  waste into food and a Finnish company has managed the trick see Food from thin air. This flour like product would be a good replacement for soya flour,which is currently decimating the amazon basin. 

There have also been recent improvements in the processes for converting CO2 into long chain hydrocarbons suitable for jet engines and potentially other heavy fuel systems like diesel.

 New Iron-based Catalyst Converts Carbon Dioxide into Jet Fuel

Freedom from AntiVaxers.

I want the right to refuse to have unvaccinated people with no medical reason in my flat and if I had a shop in my shop.
You want the right not to risk a vaccine, I want the right not to be exposed to your potential mutant infection. Having an endemic infection caused by people who choose not to be vaccinated, not only means that people who cannot be vaccinated are at risk, it means increases the number of mutations, mutations that will inevitably lead to a bypassing of the effectiveness of the vaccine.
As usual, a lot of the anti-vax stuff is from the libertarian right, which wants people to be free to do the things that libertarian right-wingers approve of but not the things other more socially-minded people approve of.
If the owner of any establishment bans those who are voluntarily unvaccinated, what legal recourse do they have if those banned enter? Is it trespass or assault? Being unvaccinated for some will be a choice, a choice that has long term consequences for others, they are seeking to impose themselves but will moan continually about their loss of freedom with no consideration of the freedom of others.
In a free society, everyone must make compromises to allow the freedom of others, the Anti-vaxers will entertain no compromise by them.

Liverpool International Railway Station

Requirements

One of the questions that come up every so often is "If Liverpool gets an HS2/NPR connection where will the station be?". It is a difficult question to answer, Steve Rotheram and the LCR have effectively ruled out expanding Lime Street, saying it is simply not possible, and I completely agree. This hasn't stopped some people, who seem more interested in the architecture than the practicality of the solution.

It is important to set out the requirements for a proper connection. For me, this is full length 400m GC gauge trains. The LCR has added close proximity to Lime Street and the existing station to that I'd add it needs to be outside the loop for practical reasons.

The space we need is defined by the with of a GC Gauge carriage,  which is 3.29m, the platforms at a minimum of 12m with an extra meter for wiggle room giving a total of 19.58m per 2 line set. For simplicity let's call it 20m.

The absolute minimum number of platforms is 4 this assumes HS2 & NPR, in reality adding some extra platforms for intentional and classic long-distance makes sense, so a more realistic size is 6 or 8 platforms. this would allow for reasonable expansion or transfer of all long-distance express trains to the new station. Leavening regional and semi-fast for Lime street & local for Central station. This means we are looking for a site 60m or 80m wide.

 Location

I do have a site in mind which fore fills all the requirements with perhaps up to 100m available if a small amount of pavement is taken. That site is currently occupied by the Mount Pleasant Car Park and the 051 nightclub, between Mount Pleasant and Brownlow Hill.

 

Taking 80m line and extending 450m forward takes the end of the platforms to under the cathedral.

Building

The land climbs from the Lime street and is some 10 meters higher by May Street several meters of headspace would be needed for this interface. Having 2 concourses allows the lower concourse at the platform end to be a reasonable size and to be constructed in a pit providing a cliff-like at May Street for the tunnelling to start, meeting the incoming 2 line tunnel.

Constructing an 80m span underground would be challenging.  Leaving supporting walls or building the walls would make the task easier, 3 walls each of 1m would add only 3m to the overall width and arranged as below they would provide fireproof divides between each platform in the underground section. 

Track layout.

 

 

 

Since the King's Cross fire there have been very strict rules for underground stations design to reduce the risks from fire. One of these is for excellent ventilation, to remove fumes, while the upper booking hall would prevent natural vertical ventilation, it could be provided lateral or vertically at the edge.

This would be unlikely to provide sufficient ventilation for the platforms. To accomplish this providing force extraction/insertion via vertical shafts at the end of the platforms could provide the needed throughput for the platforms with the Lower concourse side vents providing the entrance or exit points.

This would leave the area above the concourses free for use as a significant building.

Connections

Providing access to Liverpool's other main stations via travelators could utilise the existent access to central from the basement of Lewis's.

A station of this size would likely mean that other than an expansion of Liverpool central no new station would be needed for 100 years. Providing support for an international connection via the channel tunnel.

Full Connection

I know that currently HS2 plans barely include Liverpool as anything other than a minor adjunct but here are several plans for a dedicated Liverpool line from 20 Miles More to my own far cheaper plan here at Lymm to Lime Street.