May 20, 2004
Working in a chemical engineering laboratory can have have its up and downs. Technically speaking, there are ups and downs everywhere, but experiences here can range from good to bad. Below is the link to the lab where I go and work. Its a good feeling to be putting something together.
LTT Research Group
A complete fuel processor. Hopefully, it should work. The individual components work separately, putting in a connected fashion in a single box and getting that to work is another story. Today I am calibrating the controller for the system. Its a six zone controller, with 4 active zones. In other words, we can monitor 6 temperatures, but can control only 4 of those temperatures. Now that worked since we had only 4 reactors that we had to control in the system. But in steps in the faculty and decides the system needs another reactor. Now, subtractions from a system are easy to do, addtions to a system....make room, more stuff in, more instrumentation and the worst part, another reactor to control. So, we have to add a SSR(Solid State Relay) to out controller to make another zone active. That's the easy part. Adding connectors to the system for the extra controller is bad. Neccetates us to pull the system apart and then put it back together.
Now, for the worst experience. A chemical engineering lab had tons of cylinders, you can see a few in the link above. At the last inventory done a week ago, there are 170 cylinders spread in 3 labs. So in the lab I worked there are definitely more than 50 cylinders with many being explosive gases. Here I go, the first time plugging in a brand new controller in the power supply and I hear a huge BOOM, it was one deafening BIG BOOM and a very loud whistle followed it. Damn to loud. I was shit scared, not knowing what it was or what I had done by plugging in the controller that caused the big boom. After few agonizing moments, I left the room and coudnt hear anything. I was shaking like anything. It turned out that a nitrogen cylinder with a faulty valve was venting a little nitrogen. The valve if faulty so it makes a huge noise when it does so. But boy, that was scary. Being in a lab that can blow up anytime and specifically just when I plugged in the controller for the first time.
Whew! On a good note, yesterday's cricket score 20 runs with no boundaries in nearly 9 over by me. Team ending at 144 in 18 overs. We win the match by picking up regular wickets.
LTT Research Group
A complete fuel processor. Hopefully, it should work. The individual components work separately, putting in a connected fashion in a single box and getting that to work is another story. Today I am calibrating the controller for the system. Its a six zone controller, with 4 active zones. In other words, we can monitor 6 temperatures, but can control only 4 of those temperatures. Now that worked since we had only 4 reactors that we had to control in the system. But in steps in the faculty and decides the system needs another reactor. Now, subtractions from a system are easy to do, addtions to a system....make room, more stuff in, more instrumentation and the worst part, another reactor to control. So, we have to add a SSR(Solid State Relay) to out controller to make another zone active. That's the easy part. Adding connectors to the system for the extra controller is bad. Neccetates us to pull the system apart and then put it back together.
Now, for the worst experience. A chemical engineering lab had tons of cylinders, you can see a few in the link above. At the last inventory done a week ago, there are 170 cylinders spread in 3 labs. So in the lab I worked there are definitely more than 50 cylinders with many being explosive gases. Here I go, the first time plugging in a brand new controller in the power supply and I hear a huge BOOM, it was one deafening BIG BOOM and a very loud whistle followed it. Damn to loud. I was shit scared, not knowing what it was or what I had done by plugging in the controller that caused the big boom. After few agonizing moments, I left the room and coudnt hear anything. I was shaking like anything. It turned out that a nitrogen cylinder with a faulty valve was venting a little nitrogen. The valve if faulty so it makes a huge noise when it does so. But boy, that was scary. Being in a lab that can blow up anytime and specifically just when I plugged in the controller for the first time.
Whew! On a good note, yesterday's cricket score 20 runs with no boundaries in nearly 9 over by me. Team ending at 144 in 18 overs. We win the match by picking up regular wickets.
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