Not really that bad
I noticed a lot of my recent entries about the project have been somewhat negative. It's actually not that bad. It just gets very frustrating at times when you're designing something and every possible problem comes up when testing it. We have been trying to design a plate-and-frame press filter simulator to simulate the large-scale filtration processes. We have had just about every problem come up from "how do we design this" to "equipment not rated for high enough pressure" to "solids content of liquid to high; it plugs our filter" to "will this actually filter the liquid or just let it pass through". Well we finally got all those problems fixed by Friday afternoon. The system finally works the way we want it to. Now we can procede with actually testing our alternatives. But besides all that, we actually have accomplushed a lot. We proved/disproved the 1st half of our project within the 1st two weeks. We have done way too much research in to long-term solutions. Everybody is always surprised at how much we got accomplished already, BEFORE we even talk about testing the "short-term" alternatives. At times, we just feel like we haven't done much because we know we could accomplish more, we're only scratching the surface, and we know there are other things we still want to get done before our time is up here. It's not that bad. We may not be getting the results we hoped to get (hoped for changes (of some kind), probably not going to happen) but the results are what they are. ACTUALLY, WE ARE IN VERY GOOD POSITION WITH OUR PROJECT.
So today was the 1st day of our last week here in CA. We got to work earlier than usual and started cranking out experiments. We had a few misfires in the morning, but we were rolling after lunch. We made substantial progress today on our filter aids testing. Tomorrow, I am going up to Modesto to discuss crossflow filtration while Brooks sticks around our plant to continue running tests. On Wed. we discuss our presentation with our advisor and wrap up everything for our project. And on Thurs. we give our final presentation at 1pm. Who know how many people are going to be there, but we are expecting quite a few. Lots of people have been asking about our project because it could impact practically everybody at the plant. But one person who won't be there will be our advisor. Apparently he has to go to SF Wed. afternoon-Fri. Then that night, we go to dinner with our advisors and some important Gallo people. Friday will probably be a day of chilling and packing because we fly out Sat. lunch time.
So today was the 1st day of our last week here in CA. We got to work earlier than usual and started cranking out experiments. We had a few misfires in the morning, but we were rolling after lunch. We made substantial progress today on our filter aids testing. Tomorrow, I am going up to Modesto to discuss crossflow filtration while Brooks sticks around our plant to continue running tests. On Wed. we discuss our presentation with our advisor and wrap up everything for our project. And on Thurs. we give our final presentation at 1pm. Who know how many people are going to be there, but we are expecting quite a few. Lots of people have been asking about our project because it could impact practically everybody at the plant. But one person who won't be there will be our advisor. Apparently he has to go to SF Wed. afternoon-Fri. Then that night, we go to dinner with our advisors and some important Gallo people. Friday will probably be a day of chilling and packing because we fly out Sat. lunch time.