Intership at FOSSEE, IIT Bombay by K PRABHU TEJA

Chasing your area of interest is by far the infallible trait one can have.

"Super Critical Fluid Extraction of Essential Oils using Carbon dioxide" is one thing that made me curious - be it the multi phase flow, solubility limit constraints as the driving force, extensive thermodynamic modelling of solubility of solutes in critical state of carbon dioxide. Extensive literature survey, Design of experiments using Response Surface Methodology were some areas explored in my under graduation.

A book by Prof. Mamata Mukhopadhyay was my initial reference to begin with. IIT Bombay and the people involved could boast of working on that "Zero Waste and pure product" area, procuring a pilot plant and propose applications in the realm of nuclear power plants too. It took more than 2 e-mails, samples of my previous work, a month duration, casual talks between Prof. Kannan Moudgalya (CO PI of FOSSEE Project) and Mamata ma’am to convey my willingness to work in that area.

It turned out that Mamata ma’am was not available that summer to mentor people and recommended me to Kannan sir after my considerable work in thermodynamics; which she found in my work samples. One day while feasting on refreshments after amidst a heavy academic workload; I received a call from Prof Kannan enquiring about my willingness to work. He explained that allowing interns in a process with  cylinders, complex systems with a high concern for safety might not be feasible. (Indeed they have a technology transfer with funded projects from DRDO & BARC).

Thankfully, I was introduced to "Free and Open Source Software for Engineering in Education"(FOSSEE) by Prof. Kannan himself. I was asked to be comfortable in DWSIM spoken tutorials; available on the respective web page. Simulation of the assignment section at the end of open tutorials took off their inhibitions on my ability to play around with the source tools. I was assigned to Priyam Nayak, a Project Research Assistant devoted to  DWSIM activities, technical content and creation of Spoken Tutorials. Communication was primarily through e and phone calls to confirm my details of Check in and out. He gave me time to familiarise with the campus and later introduced me to other project staff, working interns and briefed me on the kind of work expected. The team was looking for someone to work in the field of thermodynamics.

DWSIM is a compliant, Brazilian open source which caters to simulating industrial flow processes, before their inception in the pilot stage. My work was to simulate complex processes like azeotropic, extractive distillation to prove that the software does more than what is expected of an open source.

The first thing that came to my mind was to leave before I embarrass myself later. IITB is anything but not redundant. The issue right from the start is to choose the system to be simulated. The database is relatively less because of its recent inception. While trying to simulate a distillation column; the inputs would be to first select the type of iterative method for an individual tray to tray analysis coupled with an option to select the convergence limits. The very first week of a  internship was spent in knowing the number of ways a simulation cannot work.

Everyone was supportive and willing to help me out. I posted on several forums, received suggestions and ended up with a portion of  start. Prof. Kannan gave me the freedom to work at my own pace. The extent of progress was considered in every meet but there never used to be deadlines or pressure to reach a specific goal post.

I would rather say that I worked with him than under him.

Rejection, uncertainty knocked my doorstep and literally lived with me for the initial time. Lab sessions felt very dull with the other interns working in sync with their work. ( relative misery. It always has been!) One of the project staff introduced me to Mamata ma’am and we started discussions. Heterogeneous azeotropes where a vapour is in equilibrium with two liquids upon cooling with a subsequent separation by decantation which is a Vapour-Liquid-Liquid (VLL) System. That's how I could connect the dots to the importance of phase diagrams in my  curriculum. She talked about Prausnitz who was a pioneer in developing interaction coefficient of a VLL system. Theoretical aspects of the separation were summarised but how simulation can be done?

I couldn't specify the system that it is a special one with some additional data. I noticed a Cape Open Unit Operation in the object modules. The software comes with an additional ChemSep database. It has an option to specify the thermodynamic model to evaluate the basic properties of the system (which is ignored by amateurs in modelling) and load Prausnitz, NRTL, UNIQUAC, UNIFAC, Modified Dortmund interaction parameters among a few.

This path of uncertainty at every single point shook all my inhibitions to only have a single line of thought. One evening, after specifying the conditions and waiting for the simulation to converge when I least expected to happen; the inevitable happened and I gave a fist pump. My presentations before the faculties working in Process Simulation areas at IITB about the pros and cons of the open source was properly acknowledged. People here are willing to listen to your points no matter your background, age as long as it made sense.

Imagine the author, whose book you referred during UG is the one with whom you discuss the favourite subject daily. The 'spoken tutorials' section in some Open Source software pages was possible because a  girl volunteered to listen videos in other foreign language and jot down the equivalent in English, even if she was not fully aware. Anyone can contribute to things if they can be useful to others later. IIT Bombay shines because of the people who make an effort to start even if they have a 'scratch' of what is needed to begin.

Every intern at any institute tries to make the best of all the academic help and facilities available. It’s also nice to indulge in other activities too. It isn't like far away from home and sole purpose is to work attitude that has to be imbibed. Continue with art if you are already into it since the beginning. Places like IIT Bombay have an indoor & outdoor volleyball, basketball, cricket and badminton places where one can sweat out and pursue their favourite sport. For Fitness freaks, they do have a gym at the base of every hostel and night canteens run until 2 am. Very  institutes do come up with facilities, timings if one chooses to have a different work plan.

About Author

K PRABHU TEJA

IInd Year Masters'

Chemical Plant Design

National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal