Following my internship at ZEF I had the opportunity to do my thesis here as well, albeit on a different subsystem.The subsystem in question is the high pressure alkaline electrolyser system. This is where water, captured from the surrounding air, is electrochemically split into hydrogen and oxygen.During the thesis at ZEF I've become an experienced stack engineer. Apart from general system assembly and operation, I developed a product gas composition measuring system for both hydrogen and oxygen sides of the system. With the gas measurement system I am aiming at characterizing the alkaline electrolyser system not only on its performance with respect to efficiency, but also with respect to internal gas crossover levels, and safe modes of operation.

Early in 2020 I had the opportunity to do an internship at Zero Emission Fuels (ZEF) bv. ZEF is a start-up company, founded by tech-entrepreneurs Jan van Kranendonk, Ulrich Starke and Hessel Jongebreur. Since 2017 they have been operating out of the TU Delft laboratory, and have access to the latest in energy technologies.ZEF is developing a sustainable methanol production process. The ZEF micro plant which will produce methanol by capturing water and carbon dioxide from the surrounding air, with power generated solely by PV cells. The PV cells allow the microplant to be able to operate completely of the grid. This means it can be implemented in remote areas which are favorable for their respective ambient conditions. The microplant is modular and small scale, as a small size system is more suitable for dynamic operations, which is essential when using fluctuating energy sources like solar energy. Small scale means fast heating and cooling, and thus fast start-up and shutdown. Scale up is achieved in numbers, rather than in creating a larger system. This way methanol farms consisting of multiple tens of thousands micro plants can produce methanol in a sustainable way, completely automated and off the grid, storing the liquid methanol on site.ZEF has subdivided the entire system in subsystems, each with their own difficulties and challenges. For my internship in particular I had the opportunity to work on the methanol synthesis reactor subsystem. Operation of the high pressure natural convection reactor, as well as modeling of a new reactor design were among the tasks performed.

Docent wiskunde aan zowel bovenbouw als onderbouw klassen. Resultaat gericht kennis overbrengen op leerlingen van VMBO tot VWO denkniveau. Mentoraat van een 3VWO klas gedurende schooljaar 2017-2018.In mijn rol als docent haal ik veel genoegen uit het motiveren van leerlingen. Daar het Thorbecke lyceum een topsport en talent school is, heeft het overgrote deel van de leerlingen school niet als hoogste prioriteit, en om ook deze leerlingen mee te krijgen in de les, geeft mij veel voldoening.Ook heb ik mijn leidinggevende vaardigheden sterk weten te ontwikkelen tijdens mijn tijd als docent.