Automotive Parts and Industrial Tools
I was hired to support the group’s corrosion mitigation efforts. Due its high temperatures and pH values, the heat pump is subject to heavy corrosion. Besides being harmful to the metal, corrosion produces non-condensable gases that disrupt the temperature-pressure equilibrium in the system. After some build-up, the gases eventually shut down the apparatus. However, the GAHP is meant to have a lifetime of 15 years. Thus, the ENT team sought to hire a chemical engineer to help them understand and inhibit corrosion to be able to meet their products’ desired lifetime.
My most important contribution was the creation of documentation that explained thoroughly the causes and effects of corrosion, all experimental methods and results obtained when studying this phenomenon, and the short-term and long-term solutions devised by our team.
I had the pleasure of living between Wernau, a small town where Bosch Thermotechnology was located, and Stuttgart, the biggest city nearby. Esslingen, my home for the last six months in Germany, is a gorgeous medieval-style city located on the banks of the Neckar river. It was, by far, the best part of my MISTI experience, as nothing compared to the joy of walking through its lovely cobblestone streets, admiring its ancient architecture and thousands of lights reflecting off the windows of tiny cafes and bakeries.