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| User: | eleanor_chan (11522503) Never Say Die! A day in the life of a chemical engineer
So a floc says to a bacteria, "stick with me and I'll show you a good time..." |
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| Name: | eleanor_chan | |||||
| Location: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | |||||
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| Bio: | Hey there, thanks for taking the time to read my profile! I'm currently in my penultimate year of a double degree: Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Biology and Biotechnology) at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. I've had two industrial placements with two water authorities in Melbourne, South East Water and then City West Water. I have been kept on part time with CWW. From my experiences in industry, I have adopted the motto, "Never Say Die!" This is because I have learnt that even with a little extra persistence, the rewards reaped are ten-fold. Not to mention, having worked with commissioning engineers, you just have to keep pushing to make sure you get the job done and get it right the first time. My final year research project for first semester (Feb-June) is to determine the effect of sulphate on concrete. I'm using ordinary portland concrete (OPC) as my control and the concrete I'm testing is pulverized fuel ash (PFA). Of course, I know you're all asking, why in the world is a chemical engineer crazy enough to tackle an alien material such as concrete for her final year project? Well I'm interested in it because bacteria in the soil have a metabolic by product called hydrogen sulphide. When the hydrogen sulphide reacts with water, sulphuric acid is created. The sulphates present from the sulphuric acid has always been a problem for the longevity of concrete. In Victoria (where I live), the ecology of the soils is such that the degradation of concrete due to sulpate is not an issue. However, in other parts of Australia such as Queensland, the different ecology of the soil makes sulphate attack an issue of much more concern. So much so that consulting companies have been getting postgraduate students to research it. My mix designs have been supplied by a consulting company. I'm hoping to get to meet some of the consulting engineers and see what that company is like as well so that I hope to get a foot in the door when I apply for graduate placements for 2008. My design project will start in semester two (from July onwards) so I don't know what that is about yet. I'm very passionate about wastewater treatment, in particular the development and use of membranes to do reverse osmosis on either seawater (desalination) as well as the discharge from conventional activated sludge plants (that is, treat the water discharged from sewage works so that it can be reused and not just wasted by discharging to an outfall). And yes, if recycled water was available in Melbourne, I'd drink it. In my blog, I'll be posting about anything that affects my life as a soon to be engineer. I hope you enjoy it and decide to add me:) | |||||
| Memories:: | 1 entry | |||||
| Interests: | 6: cartoons, coffee, concerts, food, movies, working out | |||||
| Schools: | RMIT University - Brunswick - Melbourne, Vic, Australia (2003 - present) | |||||
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| Mutual Friends: | 12: archimeaties, barksy, darthbessie, eagleroost, funkerjess, hellebelle, kately, momo0160, mrs_dragon, neitherday, ozgenre, stealth_bomber | |||||
| Member of: | 5: _scientists_, bike_victoria, engineers, lab_gripes, melbournemaniac | |||||
| Account type: | Plus Account | |||||
