So Hello World!
I'm here today with my best friend Elisabeth
Hi
She's a chemical engineer, which is super,
awesome, amazing.
I hope someone will think that one day when I need to apply for a job, but...
We're doing an adventurous
Adventurous interview
Ya
Elisabeth?
Ya
What is chemical engineering?
Ok chemical engineering, for me, probably 100000000 people will disagree, but for me
it's the optimization of processes, materials.
Ya processes is very broad.
So that covers everything from the production of ethanol to the production of this super
specific Gortex fabrics.
So, ya it's, for me, it's something that It's the kind of engineering that makes life easier
by making everything better.
My field is energy and secondarily environment.
And I think that's cool because you can apply it to pretty much all industries need to become
more efficient regarding energy right now.
Due to the situation we're in with greenhouse gases and such.
So I think that's I think chemical engineering in the environment is a key role to develop
new processes and develop new technologies to have those become more efficient.
So that's why I like my field.
But then there's, you can choose to, in chemical engineering you can choose to really go in
detail into optimizing the rotational molecules whatever super detailed.
Or you can choose to optimize this big chemical plant and make it 1% more efficient which
can save billions of dollars for the industry.
So I think that's cool with chemical engineering.
Maybe those billions of dollars could be yours.
So I think that's cool.
I think the scalability in the program is pretty cool.
Right now you're doing your masters in chemical engineering at ETH, right?
Yes.
But you're on exchange from KTH in Sweden?
Yes, in Sweden that translates to "The Royal Institute of Technology" because the king
of Sweden owns the soil where the school is standing.
What are you interested in?
I'm interested in electrochemistry because I think
Wait, what is electrochemistry?
In detail it's a lot of things but in a broad way you can say that it's a reaction based
on that you have an ion transfer or an electron transfer.
I was like "what's electron in English?" but then I realized that it's the same as in Swedish.
What are you specifically working on?
Ya the thing is that I moved away a bit from the mobility section.
Because currently I'm working with grid energy storage.
So you know how we have wind power and sometimes it's a lot of wind and sometimes there's no
wind?
Ya.
We need to even that out so we can supply an even energy amount to the people.
So it's like when there's grid fluctuations
We need a storage device.
And what I'm working with, is something called "flow batteries."
I'm not going to go too deep what that is.
No go deep into what that is.
Ok.
Can you explain it like super simply?
You know a battery, you have think limited compartment with a specific size, with a specific
amount of energy.
You buy an AA battery that has this amount of energy and it has this amount of
Ya well it's like this big.
A flow battery is that you take out some parts of the battery and have it outside the cell.
And then you have the containers of the electrolytes, which stores energy, outside the compartments.
So you can scale the power and store the energy independently.
So if you have bigger tanks of electrolytes you can store more energy, but you can still
extract the same power.
Why wouldn't you have a ginormous battery instead of just storing it in an electrolyte.
Ya the thing is, why you want these flow cells is because they don't self-discharge as much
a batteries.
If you leave a battery for a really long time it will self-discharge.
But a flow battery is more durable when it's not operating.
Ya, and also the scalability is really an important factor.
You seem worried.
No I'm fine.
"I'm fine, I'm fine"
She's taken more fluid dynamics than me, so I'm like
What advice would you give to anyone that's looking to pursue chemical engineering.
Just, go for it.
And find something that you like early, like because you're gonna have to go through all
the organic chemistry, calculus and algebra.
You're gonna have to go through all those mandatory things.
But just...think about, find something that you like, and go for it.
Because the thought about like automotive industry or like car industry have helped
me go through those courses that I'm not really interested in because I'm thinking "well when
I'm finished, I'm going to have a career at Tesla, or Volvo, or BMW" So just the goal
have kept me motivated throughout it.
Do what's fun and don't be limited by anyone else.
That's really good advice.
What's the stupidest thing you've ever done.
Because a lot of people think that we're super-smart but I'm telling you, we're just regular girls.
No I can't come up with something specific that is the most stupid thing I've ever done.
Something that I do a lot, is to calculate something and think that "ya this is right"
and then I look at the answer sheets and be like "there's probably an error in the answer
sheets" And then I realize I converted, I don't know, Joules to Watts in the wrong way.
Something that's like super trivial but I just make the same error over and over.
That's probably the worst mistake because you're so stupid that you make them several
times.
Ok so thank you everyone for watching.
If you like this video please give it a thumbs up.
And while you're down there, if you support the project, please subscribe.
Because I think it's a really cool thing that we're doing here but it's really difficult
for other people to see
If she's not motivated enough for YouTube she might as well go and
write her thesis instead.
Ya, what am I gonna do?
Actually do my masters thesis?
No a chance!
I'm kidding Oliver!
That's my supervisor.
No I think you guys should all subscribe because I think this is an awesome project.
Thank you very much for being my interviewee!
I think it was really cool.
I think electrochemistry is really dope.
Do you wish that you chose chemical engineering instead?
I really hate chemistry.
Sometimes I can be like, because what we're doing is so closely related, you're taking
flows, I'm taking flows.
Well like, ya, we both work with flows but I do like turbulence and fluid dynamics that's
all on fire.
And I do more liquids.
But you do more the reactions.
You do stuffs.
You do the same thing as me but your thing is on fire.
Ya maybe.