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Electric bubbles for Thames
Volume 21/Number 3/March 1990
Spain, Luxemburg and Ireland also have cases against them but the Commission is trying to find satisfactory compromises rather than referring these countries to the court. The only two countries to escape so far are Portugal and Denmark although each for rather different reasons. Portugal is not yet in a position to bring about the considerable changes needed to clean up its water supply as it does not yet have the necessary government mechanisms available. Although water pollution is now accepted as a major problem, no court proceedings have yet been brought against this country. Denmark's water is clean and shows no toxic contamination-the only EEC country to be in this position.
Electric Bubbles for Thames Thames Water Authority has just taken delivery of a new £3.5 m oxygenating barge, designed to pump oxygen bubbles into the River Thames as part of an anti-pollution campaign. Known as the Thames Bubbler, the 50 m barge uses a water pumping system and a plant which extracts oxygen from the air, compresses and cools it, and feeds the result into huge vessels full of a substance called
Zeolite (which absorbs nitrogen but allows oxygen to pass through). Four submersible pumps draw 2000 1. of water per second into the vessel and through four venturi tubes where pressure is increased and the oxygen enters. The water is then pumped back into the river via 160 nozzles as bubbles which burst on entry oxygenating the water. The barge is powered by three 1 megawatt generating sets, two of which are used constantly and one on standby. All three can be synchronized and paralleled together. The huge generators were manufactured by PG & M of Sandwich, Kent, U.K. and provide electrical power for all on board services, the oxygenation plant and the barge's main propulsion units. Each generating set is equipped with a water cooled exhaust manifold, and hea~2¢ duty silencers keeping the noise outside the vessel to a level of 71 dBs at 10 m. The barge was built on Merseyside by McTay Marine.
Record Breaking Turtle A gigantic turtle died when it became entangled in whelk lines 4 miles off Porthmadog, North Wales last September. The fisherman managed to cut the turtle
One of the three 1 MW Main Power Generators built by PG & M Ltd, installed on the Thames Bubbler barge for oxygenating the River Thames as part of an anti-pollution campaign to keep the river clean.
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Spain, Luxemburg and Ireland also have cases against them but the Commission is trying to find satisfactory compromises rather than referring these countries to the court. The only two countries to escape so far are Portugal and Denmark although each for rather different reasons. Portugal is not yet in a position to bring about the considerable changes needed to clean up its water supply as it does not yet have the necessary government mechanisms available. Although water pollution is now accepted as a major problem, no court proceedings have yet been brought against this country. Denmark's water is clean and shows no toxic contamination-the only EEC country to be in this position.
Electric Bubbles for Thames Thames Water Authority has just taken delivery of a new £3.5 m oxygenating barge, designed to pump oxygen bubbles into the River Thames as part of an anti-pollution campaign. Known as the Thames Bubbler, the 50 m barge uses a water pumping system and a plant which extracts oxygen from the air, compresses and cools it, and feeds the result into huge vessels full of a substance called
Zeolite (which absorbs nitrogen but allows oxygen to pass through). Four submersible pumps draw 2000 1. of water per second into the vessel and through four venturi tubes where pressure is increased and the oxygen enters. The water is then pumped back into the river via 160 nozzles as bubbles which burst on entry oxygenating the water. The barge is powered by three 1 megawatt generating sets, two of which are used constantly and one on standby. All three can be synchronized and paralleled together. The huge generators were manufactured by PG & M of Sandwich, Kent, U.K. and provide electrical power for all on board services, the oxygenation plant and the barge's main propulsion units. Each generating set is equipped with a water cooled exhaust manifold, and hea~2¢ duty silencers keeping the noise outside the vessel to a level of 71 dBs at 10 m. The barge was built on Merseyside by McTay Marine.
Record Breaking Turtle A gigantic turtle died when it became entangled in whelk lines 4 miles off Porthmadog, North Wales last September. The fisherman managed to cut the turtle
One of the three 1 MW Main Power Generators built by PG & M Ltd, installed on the Thames Bubbler barge for oxygenating the River Thames as part of an anti-pollution campaign to keep the river clean.
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