Marten Boerma
MSc Chemical Engineering student
30 years old
Driving License
Groningen (9713GD) Netherlands
Employed
Available
The internship was performed at AkzoNobel and finished on december 1st.
In this project for BIOMCN, a company located in Farmsum, NL, I undertook the challenge to determine the catalytic stability of alternative steam reforming catalysts. The company encountered pressure drop problems in their reactor while co-feeding glycerol with methane in their steam reforming process.
In my research I first established the mechanism for the reactor choking and determined the stability of the alternative catalysts over 100h of reaction in a self-developed pre-pilot plant setup.
With knowledge of the mechanism, improved solutions can be conjured in terms of catalyst development and processing for this particular process.
In my research I first established the mechanism for the reactor choking and determined the stability of the alternative catalysts over 100h of reaction in a self-developed pre-pilot plant setup.
With knowledge of the mechanism, improved solutions can be conjured in terms of catalyst development and processing for this particular process.
In my bachelor's thesis I looked into the implementation of electrolysis and cryogenic air separation in industrial ammonia plants. This vast file (330 pages/75000 words) contained a part of the information necessary to convert an actual plant. Therein was a sizeable model in Aspen plus V8, showing a steady state stream summary for the entire plant. The conclusion was a promising one, indicating that a small overcapacity could be archieved for conventional plants.
I had embarked on a 6 month research project in polymeric surfactants for prof Picchioni's group, commisioned by Royal Cosun. In this project I extensively used GPC, NMR and optical techniques in order to obtain key information about the copolymers I had synthesized. The main focus of the project was acquiring a copolymer that lowered interfacial tension in emulsion while maintaining a polymer solution's characteristic rheological properties. These properties are useful in EOR.
Details and Extracurriculars
- In 2011 an exchange project was undertaken between London and Winschoten in which I went away to taste the English teaching method and of course its culture and language. This was primarily a cross-culture project in which language- and culture differences were the main topic. This period improved my English proficiency. I visited again the following year, however now for a longer period of time.
Over these years I laid the foundation of knowledge necessary for a chemical engineer.
Details and Extracurriculars
- In the final year I undertook a research project in the controlled synthesis of various amphiphilic polymers in order to obtain high value products for a range of applications, such as in enhanced oil recovery, cosmetics, detergents and specialty coatings.
- My final thesis was on the implementation of water electrolysis and cryogenic air separation in ammonia plants. Concluding that an overcapacity of 3% could be realised by reusing the vast energy surplus that these plants are notorious for.
In my high school years I developed my curiosity for the sciences.
Details and Extracurriculars
- I took courses in philosophy, Greek, French, German and history for 3 years and 6 years of Latin, Dutch, English, physics, chemistry, biology, mathmatics (B), management & organisation.
- As an extracurricular I followed an extra course in astronomy.
- As the final research project I looked into the posibilities of ethanol synthesis by starch conversion by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and using the product to show that regular petrol engines can run on up to 80:20 mixture of ethanol:gasoline.
