Right after the CERE discussion meeting in Denmark, I've been on secondment at SLB's Cambridge Research Centre (SCR) for two weeks, away from my usual DTU research and into the industry.

The secondment came about through a prior connection with a data scientist at SLB through the MISSION-CCS project. I got exposed to a range of energy-transition and oil & gas topics that sit outside my usual research: green hydrogen, direct lithium extraction, geothermal energy, MOFs, produced water, and thermal energy storage. I've spent a good part of the first week reading into these areas and talking with colleagues working on them, including Sergey (ML/chemometrics), Evgeny (corrosion), Adam (DLE/adsorption), and Matthew (CO₂ capture using MOFs). The discussions with colleagues at SLB have already helped move some of my CO₂ capture data analysis forward. I picked up new ideas on machine learning and data analysis that I can apply to developing my own methods, and talking with the corrosion experts was particularly useful for designing my next set of corrosion measurements at a CO₂ capture plant.

 

Presenting My PhD Work

In the second week, I presented my PhD research to the group at SCR, covering my work on degradation monitoring, corrosion probes, and gas-phase CO₂ quality monitoring. I also gathered slides from colleagues at DTU beforehand, so the presentation gave a broader view of the group's research, not just my own project.

The presentation itself sparked some good discussions and surfaced research from colleagues at DTU that SLB hadn't been aware of. A few SLB colleagues mentioned they'd like to follow up directly with them for potential collaboration, a good sign the talk landed well.

 

Lastly, I also had the opportunity to visit Technology Welding Institute (TWI), which is one of the (indirect) project partners of the CASPER CO₂ capture project at DTU. There I saw various corrosion testing setups, to study the corrosive effects of impurities in captured CO₂ on transport equipment.

 

Fun fact: the Eclipse 500 jet parked outside TWI is a mascot for the site, its wings and fuselage panels were friction stir welded, a technique first developed and commercialized at TWI in 1991. Eclipse Aviation went on to deliver 259 friction-stir-welded business jets, making it one of the first aircraft built at scale using TWI's own welding process.

Exploring Cambridge

Alongside the work, I've been staying in Cambridge and have used some of the time to explore the city. Cambridge has a very English look and feel, the old college buildings, the River Cam with punts going up and down it, and narrow streets that open onto large courtyards and lawns.