“He’s lost the beard,” I commented to The Man On My Left as Professor David MacKay entered the room at the Max Fordham event on heating London, “Is he leaving Government ?”
It turns out, he is – 31st July – he told An Interested Party. “Where are you going ?”, AIP asked. David shrugged his shoulders in a non-committal sort of way, “Back to Cambridge,” he volunteered. Now, one could take that as a sign that he will be returning to Cambridge University, but it could mean something else.
I buttonholed him.
“Are you THE Jo Abbess ?” he asked.
“Yes, sadly,” I fake-apologised. “I’m pleased to see you finally believe in low carbon gas,” I said in a congratulatory tone.
His advice was to talk about meeting representatives from Audi and BMW about their choice for the transport sector. One is going with the hydrogen economy (if they can fix the hydrogen on-board storage questions) – fuel cells being so efficient (if they work). The other is going with the methane – NGV – Natural Gas Vehicles – using CNG – Compressed Natural Gas.
“I’m attempting to author a work on Renewable Gas,” I confided, “and I’ve been looking at resurrecting old gas-making technologies – for SNG – synthetic Natural Gas.”
Professor MacKay recommended I talk to Ian Ellerington, his Head of Innovation Delivery, but warned me everybody is busy. He wrote Ian’s email on his business card. The email bounced undeliverable. Oh well.