Just Another Day
July 8, 2015 4:02 pm Leave your thoughts
Hello friends,
This week I thought I would share with you an average day in the life of a co-op student with Weyerhaeuser. First I thought I would give you a brief overview of my position. Generally, I work from 7:00 to 4:30 in the Chemical and Utilities department which is in charge of recovering the chemicals used in the pulping process and providing utilities such as electricity, water and steam to other parts of the process.
My day generally starts at 5:30 A.M so there is time to have breakfast and make a lunch before heading out around 6:40 A.M. It takes approximately 20 minutes for me to drive to work from my apartment at Grande Prairie Regional College. Most mornings, as I descend the final hill into the river valley below, mist envelops my vehicle shrouding it in mystery. Driving through the fog is a beautiful way to begin my morning and reminds me of the opportunity that lies just ahead in the coming day.
When I walk onto the site the first thing I do is stop at my locker to grab my respirator and PPE. As my office is located inside of the plant, safety is the first thing I think of every morning. Once I get to my office I spend some time reviewing the plant performance from the previous day and familiarizing myself with any follow-up items for my unit that have emerged during the previous night’s shift. This is all in preparation for the morning safety meeting involving shift coordinators, maintenance coordinators, area operations leaders and process engineers. The purpose is to discuss the work occurring that day, troubleshoot any issues and bring up any potential safety concerns that could arise in the days work. After the morning meeting I spent part of my day with the unit operators getting to know the plant better and discussing operational challenges that can occur. They have truly been an invaluable resource in helping me to learn the process better and with my projects.
The rest of my day is spent working on my project list. One of my current projects involves properly calibrating our optical liquor analyzer to minimize the time needed to perform manual liquor testing. Before I collect a liquor sample I always conduct a risk assessment to determine the hazards that exist doing this task and the steps that I will take to mitigate them. Sampling usually involves slowly turning the valve then safely filling the sample bottle. Once samples have been given enough time to cool the analysis begins. Liquor analysis is used to determine active and effective alkali, gravimetric polysulphides, UV active polysulphide and percent solids. These results are found using manual techniques such as titrations, vacuum filtration and oven based evaporations. While these methods are time consuming, they can give an accurate estimate of the true value to compare against. All of this manual testing has made me truly appreciate advances in optical infrared spectroscopy methods that use light diffraction to determine the specific parameters rather than manual testing.
All in all each day brings on something new to learn and a new challenge to tackle.
So long for now,
Amy MacTaggart