7 BILLION PEOPLE
The US Government released their latest findings indicating that by 2012 Seven (7) Billion people will populate our world. China # 1 with 1.33 billion, India already 1,15 billion # 2 and the USA # 3 with 303 million, all this according to the Census Bureau, telling us that we were 6 billion in 1999 and today approx. 6.4 billion.
HENDRINA POWER STATION
ESKOM’S Hendrina Power Station will be furnished with 8000 filter bags made from PPS Fortron® - manufactured by TICONA ENGNEERING POLYMERS — for this power station with 2,000 MW. These filter bags are 8095 mm long and have a diameter of 127mm, thus representing 3.228 sqm of filter area, a total of 25,824 sqm for the entire plant. This is the 2nd such large installation in South Africa, after the MEDUPI POWER STATION with 4,800 MW capacity. This trend is of great interest, since it will also influence decisions in other parts of the world, notably China.
www.mcilvainecompany.com
CHINA "FATIGUE"
Having traveled to China since 1998 — 20 years last February — wages were than roughly $ 25.00/month for factory workers. China in those days had basicly 3 levels of ‘management’. The next step was ‘supervisor’ , last not least 'manager or boss'. That has changed of course during the last 20 years. Also wages are today closer to $ 190.00/month up to $ 250.00/month for most first level employees.
Factories in China — for the first time — are experiencing typical problems of an ‘industrial revolution’. The Government has virtually discontinued ‘subsidies’ and also enforces labor and safety laws, it does not tolerate any more "shabby workmanship". In addition companies have to pay ‘higher’ raw material cost and of course all transportation expenses have risen significantly. Workers in China used to be ‘cheap’, but nowadays there are becoming more difficult to find, there is tremendous ‘competition’ among Chinese manufacturing companies for their workforce. One other aspect is affecting Chinese companies as well. The Government is "cracking down" more frequently on ‘copy cats’, producer who copy Western consumer goods, are being prosecuted much more often.
Many manufacturers in the fast-growing cities in the coastal areas, are experiencing an unexpected reversal of their fortunes, which will eventually have profound economic but also political implications. Unrest of disgruntled workers represents trouble for the Government. As it turned out, the "competiveness" of Chinese manufacturer is greatly challenged and we have learned, that numerous Western companies are looking at "cheaper labor" and therefore considering countries like VIETNAM and others for future manufacturing plants. Many had eventually expected such developments; however, some observers are surprised, that all this happened so fast.
The Chinese Government is, in addition, actively trying to phase out some of the ‘lowest-wage’ assembly work and is trying to build up more ‘high tech’ — more valuable manufacturing — facilities. More than 2,000 products have lost their ‘tax-subsidies’ as previously mentioned.
Unrelated we also have learned, that in connection with the recent earthquake in the Sichuan district, because of huge power outages, many "diesel generators" have been installed and they contribute significantly to local pollution, which in all of China is a huge problem for many years.
SASOL-LIQUID FUEL
It is not a generally known fact, that South Africa is the only country, who produces synthetic gasoline from coal. The so called ‘coal-to-liquid-fuel’ technology originally was developed by 2 German scientists — Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch — in 1923. When Hitler came to power in 1933 he immediately decided to advance this process and during the war Germany had many such plants.
After WW II a South African business man bought the technology and in 1950 the "white South African" Government started SASOL. Today SASOL is the largest South African employer with 33,000 employees. There are ‘advanced’ technologies represented by SASOL II and also SASOL III. South Africa is by far the largest producer of ‘liquid’ fuel and far ahead of any other country exploring "coal-to-gasoline" technology.
Interesting is the fact that now China and also India are extremely interested in this technology, having plenty of coal deposits. Even in the US, several States like Wyoming and Montana have shown interest. In 2004 DMT ( DEUTSCHE MONTAN TECHNOLOGIE GMBH) ‘moved’ a pilot unit to the Chinese energy giant SHENHUA. In central Mongolia a first "coal-to-liquid-fuel" plant with a capacity of 5 million tons (gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel ), produced from approx. 10 million tons of coal, is under construction. This is by far the largest project — based on the BERGIUS PROCESS — and will cost €2.45 billion. Numerous research projects are associated with ‘process steam’, ‘heating gas’ and ‘electrical power’ employing this new technology.
There is one significant drawback however. The FISCHER/TROPSCH technology emits ‘carbon dioxide’, although SASOL is aiming to reduce the amount produced during the process, it is an issue however with many ‘environmental activists’ and also Governments worldwide.
Major filtration events 2008:
FILTEREX (EDANA) Cologne/ Germany — October 7-8, 2008 , www.edana.org
BAG FILTER SHANGHAI / China – November 3-5, 2008 www.bagfilter.net
INDA FILTRATION Philadelphia — December 9 - 11, 2008 www.inda.org
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