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The focus of my dissertation is on the investigation of possibilities for refining biomass into transport fuels. In my laboratory at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, I regularly use various analytical equipment and reactor systems.
An expert is rarely on site to help with equipment repairs, which can range from simple tasks like replacing a used seal on a vacuum chamber to cumbersome conversions of pumps, ovens, mass spectrometers, and adsorption analyzers.
Paying for technical assistance is often out of the question financially – and while reading through a manual for a broken stir plate may not be an item on the bucket list, over the past four years of graduate school I’ve found that understanding and repairing equipment has made me more valuable Experience than I expected.
What I learned while repairing a temperature controller
A key role for a chemical engineer working in industry or in the laboratory is process control – the monitoring and control of an operation to achieve the desired temperature, pressure, concentration or any other important parameter.
During my undergraduate studies at Montana State University in Bozeman, we were taught basic theory, basic rules of thumb, and computational methods of process control, but the application of knowledge was limited.
In the second year of my doctorate, I had the opportunity to apply this knowledge when a power surge destroyed a previously working heater and temperature controller. This device worked in the same way as a household boiler and thermostat: tell the machine what temperature you want and the system will try to achieve that goal. Behind the scenes, control parameters determine how aggressively the system pursues this goal.
The temperature controller could not be switched on after the power surge. I enlisted the help of a fourth year graduate student to diagnose and repair the damage. However, saved parameters in the temperature controller’s memory were lost when the system was rebuilt.
I thought back to my bachelor’s degrees – and after watching a few YouTube videos with the fourth grader and checking Wikipedia, we successfully tuned and tested the converted heating system. The process of diagnosing problems, gathering relevant information, and developing a solution was really encouraging and motivated me to keep troubleshooting problems in the lab.
I was fortunate to be able to take on this repair under the guidance of an older student whose experience and patience had a huge impact on me. In a graduate program, finding time to help others can be difficult, so his efforts to mentor me have been greatly appreciated and transformed into my future efforts to work with other students.
What I learned while repairing a chemisorption analyzer
A year later, I tried to figure out the structure of some of the catalyst materials I had synthesized. Chemisorption, or the adsorption of vapor molecules in a sample, is a valuable analytical technique that provides information about the surface chemistry of a catalyst.
After training, I tried to test my samples on our chemisorption system, but found that the data was not reproducible. I spoke to some colleagues and it became clear that the tool was somehow not working and therefore it was only used for basic qualitative analysis. For my purposes it was important to fix the instrument in such a way that the data collected from it are reproducible and quantitative. I got the permission of the principal researcher in charge of the instrument and teamed up with a chemistry graduate student to solve the problem.
We ran a standard sample on the chemisorption device. This process would normally be automated, but we had to catch the error immediately when it occurred. We monitored the progress of the experiment for 12 hours. We took turns watching the instrument and taking notes, and we found that part of the tubing was clogged: when gases were passed into this section of the instrument, pressure built up. Only a small segment of tubing was clogged, and after we replaced that part, the instrument was fixed. Our combined effort in diagnosing the problem allowed us to fix this multi-user instrument, which continues to provide reproducible and quantifiable data.
Each of us had strengths, which together resulted in a balanced problem-solving dynamic. My colleague was good at communicating the issues we had with the instrument and was patient as I learned the basics. I was able to use some of my previous knowledge of reactor design to suggest a solution.
Working with the chemisorption system I got to know its design and construction and discovered my strengths in the team. Once again, I found that repairing an instrument gave me a better understanding of how it worked and prepared me to apply my knowledge further.
What I Learned While Repairing a Porosity Analyzer
We use a porosity analyzer to study the structure of the pores in our catalyst materials. These devices have been a workhorse for our laboratory and others for many years. Unfortunately, with no full-time users, a lack of institutional knowledge, and a lack of preventive maintenance, equipment deteriorated. Valves were worn out, hoses were leaking, and a pump was seized. There was some risk involved in trying to fix the problem: it was out of warranty and failure resulted in a costly visit from a company representative. Without action, however, the instrument would only be usable to a limited extent – two additional days would be required for each experiment.
With the consent of my advisor, I went on a repair mission again. With this complex system, it was important to me to remember that only a few small problems kept the device from working. As long as I could diagnose, research, and fix the little things, the porosity analyzer would eventually get back to working condition. By trusting my skills and spending many hours on the phone with a technical representative, I was able to finish the job. Fortunately, calls to the technical rep were free. But this positive result required patience from my colleagues, my consultant and the technical representative and had some ups and downs.
No repair is too small …
The deviations from my everyday laboratory routine for repairing instruments have given me the opportunity to apply knowledge that I previously only considered theoretical knowledge. Once I’ve thoroughly diagnosed a problem – and once I’ve got my manager’s permission to fix it and understood the potential risks – it was well worth taking the time to fix equipment in the lab. I will go through the rest of my PhD program knowing that no repair job is too small, trivial, or insignificant to undertake; that any broken instrument is worth repairing rather than replacing; and this failure is best overcome with persistence, teamwork, and patience.
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