Last Week at The Park Group - Week 5

Hi, this is Alyssa and I'm writing about my last week working as an intern at The Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at Columbia University.

Dr. Peretz visited my lab on Monday! I showed her around the 2 labs I primarily worked in, and we chatted with my PI, PHD student as well as other people in the lab. Reflecting on my experience, I would highly recommend my lab to future EXPers. The people here are always willing to help, and Professor Park even includes us the interns in group activities. It's like a big family: we work hard, and at the same time have a lot of fun.

On Monday night, we had a group dinner at an Indian restaurant nearby to celebrate's Camille's new job in London and to say farewell to her. I'm grateful for her guidance over the past few weeks and I'm glad that I get opportunities to bond with the rest of the Park group.

The last week of my summer EXP, our experiments were mostly on Tuesday and Wednesday. Naimun and I were asked to repeat the dilution experiments on 2 more batches of samples (same experiment as the one in week 2). So we acquired the solutions through the pump, and the two of us headed to the third floor to carry out dilution for the two batches of samples as directed by the lab manual. The rest of the week, we also used the ICP for a few more times.

So that's about everything I did during my last week at the Park Group. I said goodbye to my lab on  Friday and took a midnight flight back home. It was really, really nice working here this summer, and I would like to thank both Peddie and Professor Park for the opportunity. I will have a chance to present my research at Peddie next fall using powerpoint and poster, so see you then :)

Working with the ICP - Week 4

Hi, my name is Alyssa and I'm writing about my 4th week at the Park Group at Columbia University's Environmental Engineering Department.

My PI and PHD student finally came back from the conference, and we started using the ICP to analyze our samples. Primarily, we worked in a much larger lab on the 3rd floor, where the rest of the Park Group conducts experiments.

 ICP is the abbreviation of Inductively Coupled Plasma mass spectrometer. It is used to detect metals and several non-metals at extremely low concentrations. The machine ionizes the samples with inductively coupled plasma (a type of plasma source in which the energy is created by induction) and then separate the ions using a mass spectrometer.

The process involves high temperature heating in the upper chamber and a cooling mechanism below it.     So as I was standing in front of the ICP, it was like being in two worlds - one sweltering and one cold. 

I would say the ICP process is rather straight forward - prepare samples, position test tubes, enter commands in the computer program, and GO! But since each sample takes 6-10 minutes and I need to make sure nothing goes wrong during the process, it needs to be watched over. One night, I even had to stay until 8pm to wait till the experiment was done. But the fascinating thing about ICP and the computer program is, I got to watch the testing needle dip into each test tube accurately, knowing exactly where the samples were positioned, and all I had to do is watch this happen. 

The rest of the week, I spent time reading papers from Dr. Park and helped Camille dumping some chemicals.

More Carbon Capture Experiments & Responsibilities - Week 3

Hi, I'm Alyssa. Just as a reminder, I'm working on Fluidized Bed and Carbon Capture at Columbia University.

The third week, Dr. Park, my PHD student and a few other members of the Park Group went on a science forum in Delaware on carbon sequestration, so I worked for a Post-Doc candidate, Camille, on her carbon capture experiments.

Besides myself and Camille, a few more people were in "The crew": two graduate student interns Flora and Sarah, and Post-Doc June who just arrived at our lab on Monday. We performed 3 main experiments this week. I didn't take pictures of the machines, but I did find some detailed diagrams explaining the experiments.

1. Synthesis of Solvent for CO2 Capture: we made a nano-material solvent to capture CO2 from air. This went on for the whole week, so we did it step-by-step. The final solution came out on Friday, and all of us finally felt relaxed, since we'd be back to square one if we messed up a part of the process.

2. Differential Scanning Calorimetry: we carried out experiments to measure the melting points and glass transition temperatures of about 8 elements/compounds ranging from Boron to CsCl; We also observed the entropy of melting. This experiment was not too hard to operate, because all we had to do was to put the sample in and enter a few commands. It was a very time consuming experiment. We spent on average 2 hours on testing each sample and squeezed time in between testings to carry out experiment 1. We finished it on Wednesday.

Differential Scanning Calorimetry

3. FTIR Spectroscope: The objective of this experiment was to determine characterization of molecular bonds. We put a drop of aqueous solution onto a plate that has a diamond on it (not for decoration purpose, of course =P. Because the diamond is a very reflective material, it enables good reflection and enhances signals). And then, we connected the machine with an oxygen channel. Even though Camille did the first setup herself, she gave us opportunities to connect, disconnect, and operate the system. It's quite a complicated system, but it was fun learning how to link the spectroscope with different tubes. This was the shortest experiment out of all three - a one-day process.

The first experiment was performed at my main laboratory on 10th floor, belonging to Environmental Engineering Department; the last two were done at our other lab on 3rd floor, at Engineering Terrace. So you can imagine us running up and down in the Columbia Mudd Building, allocating time slots to fit all three experiments into our schedule. It's been a fulfilling week, and it was a great chance for me to learn more about carbon capture as well as get to know more people.

And lastly, a GOOD NEWS: ICP machine is back!! My PHD student Helios, undergraduate intern Naimun and I will be using it next week. This is something I've always been looking forward to, and I'm very excited for week 4!

An Opportunity to Learn about Carbon Capture - Week 2

This is Alyssa, I've just finished up my second week of research on fluidized bed at Columbia University.

The beginning of week 2, I finished up looking at my assigned reading from the book Fluidization Engineering. At first, I thought I was going to carry out the fluidization experiments this week, but it turned out that the computer still needed a compatible program. So most of the week a master student at my lab was working on MATLAB and I helped out at another project- carbon capture.

One thing I'm glad I did was reaching out to another intern to learn about his carbon capture work. It seemed to be very interesting when I watched him do his experiments, but I did hesitate a bit before asking if he needed help because he was quite busy. Nevertheless, I approached him with questions regarding his work and offered help. He explained to me what carbon capture is and gave me a few things to do - mixing solutions, testing pH values, acquiring data... It is indeed my area of interest and I enjoyed studying carbon capture very much. I learned from my experience that helping out at another project is always a good way to know more about other areas of study. Dr. Peretz's advice was very useful - we should always look for things to do when we are free and learn about what others in our lab are doing.

Another great experience this week was joining the other members of the Park Group to attend a meeting about the future of carbon capture. The lecturer talked about the present situation of the project and pointed out a few problems about it. At first, the researchers saw it a promising project because according to the experts, the price of building carbon pipes would be quite cheap. Yet, from what the lecturer said, the old age of power plants and the unexpectedly high cost of building carbon pipes (20-30 Million USD per 50 miles) are problems researchers face. Then, Dr. Park led us to discuss whether this project would have a future, since the current economic situation does not provide researchers with sufficient capital (the marginal profit for carbon capture is low) and people are not really aware of the environmental benefits it would bring in the long run. Through the discussion, I realized that there are a lot of factors influencing the popularity and plausibility of one research, and scientists need to be critical of the information given because it often changes.

To elaborate on carbon capture, it is basically a way of storing carbon and lowering greenhouse gas emission. Here are some pictures of the carbon capture experiments I did.

pH value measuring instrument

Pump used for water dripping experiment. Typically we put it up on a shelf, insert syringe containing DI water and mineral,  then get samples in time intervals of 5s, 10s, 30s, and 60s

Test tubes containing liquid samples obtained in 4 attempts

I had a fun and educational time in my lab this past week. I hope everyone else's research is going well too!

Learning How to Solve Problems - Week 1

Hello, my name is Alyssa and I'm currently working on "application of electrostatic probe on fluidized bed" at Columbia University. It's been one week since I started my laboratory work, and my initial "out of place" feeling has been replaced by excitement about my research.

Fluidized Bed

On the first day, I met with my PI Dr. Park, PHD student Helios and the rest of the Park Group. I was introduced to fluidized bed - a machine that turns solid particles into fluid like states. Although I had read about it on paper, I had never seen it in reality and looked at the system that controls gas flow, so it was an eye-opening experience.The rest of the day, I read the introduction of a book called Fluidization Engineering to learn more about terms such as  "slugging"(when fine particles slide down the wall of a fluidized bed) and the factors affecting fluidization quality. The rest of the week, I underwent a safety training, continued reading Fluidization Engineering, started browsing the manuals of the pico ammeter the lab has, and took notes on Electrostatics Principles, Problems & Application.

Pico ammeter and
system control

Besides gaining insights on the principles of fluidized bed, studying equations that calculate voltage, and going through the safety precautions, I had a better understanding of what engineers do. In my opinion, the most important lesson I learned this week was that being an environmental engineer not only requires knowledge in the field but also utilization of other skills ranging from soldering to computer programming. The essence of science is problem solving. Over the week, my lab had 2 major problems:The first one was with the detector. After measuring the pressure drop and acquiring about 30 sets of statistics, we realized that the pressure drop always has an unusual variation each time we measure it. Undergoing "trial and error", we found out that the detector had a malfunction and it took us one day to fix it. Then, just when the pico ammeter and the system control arrived, we needed to figure out a way to import specific sets of data into the computer. It took my mentors 2 days to come up with a MATLAB program so that both machines would listen to the computer's commands. I realized that to be successful in his/her research, one needs both professional knowledge and merits such as persistence and patience.

Overall, it's been a fruitful week. The people in my lab are very kind and welcoming. I look forward to conducting actual, large-scale experiments next week and getting the most out of my EXP experience.