Everything in between

The culture shock has faded and I'm definitely beginning to adjust to life here in Magdeburg. I wanted to update everyone on what exactly I am doing here and what kind of research I am doing, now that I have figured that out myself after working for two weeks.

I am researching fuel cells as you may or may not now as my primary field of study. If you don't know anything about fuel cells I would recommend checking it out on wikipedia here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell, its pretty interesting stuff. Essentially, fuel cells are an option to replace car engines and use hydrogen as the fuel with the output as water (not the carbon dioxide and other not-so-good gases that are currently emitted from cars). It is a clean way to solve some energy problems. More specifically I'm researching what is a good way to make hydrogen. I do this by making a computer program using the equations I am given an then let the computer do all the calculations and tell me how much hydrogen I can make according the equations I'm using. That is pretty much what I am doing in a nutshell. If you want more technical details then continue reading on, if not then just skip this section.


Technical stuff (diagram by altfuels.org):
The method by which I am "making" hydrogen is called autothermal reforming. I say "making" because I am not making anything, I am just simulating everything via the computer program called MATLAB. The reforming process is an important part to getting the hydrogen we need to the actual fuel cell. Right now, as a temporal solution to getting the hydrogen to our cars, methane (or natural gas) would be used to be put into the car like gasoline. The methane would then go to the reformer. Here the gas hits the catalyst, mixes with oxygen and about 4 to 8 different chemical reactions take place, yielding about 70% hydrogen and the rest is carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and water. The carbon monoxide goes through another reaction that converts it to carbon dioxide and more hydrogen later in the process to "clean" the gases. Many different equations need to be considered during such a process. This includes taking into consideration heat transfer, mass transfer, fluid dynamics, chemical equilibria, and chemical kinetics. I have to combine all these into my MATLAB code and make it work correctly. Suffice it to say, I have plenty of work ahead of me. It's definitely an enjoyable job as I can see direct application to a lot of principles that I have been learning at college, but its not necessarily easy.


Other stuff:
The weather here has been very nice. Crisp, cool, and clear. The temperature hasn't been above 75 degrees Fahrenheit and its only sprinkled a couple of times. One thing that has amazed me here in Germany is that grass isn't cut very often. Foliage is usually just left to grow wild. However, there are many wild rose bushes and flowers that grow all over. Its not uncommon to smell the sweet aroma of flowers while walking around.


The FIFA Soccer World Cup is like the kind of like NFL Playoffs or even Super Bowl. Everyone gets excited for the games and few aren't behind a T.V. when Germany is playing a game. Its a pretty exciting time to be here and I've definitely enjoyed it.

Away From You

Its been about five days since I've last updated this blog. I've traveled over 4000 miles to arrive in Magdeburg, Germany. Its considered a small city with about 2o0,000 people living here. It is filled with lots of history, most of which I have yet to explore.

From Indianapolis, I flew to Newark, NJ and from there I flew to Berlin, Germany. From Berlin it was about another hour and a half to Magdeburg by train. Once I was shown my room, I took a much needed shower and then fell asleep for the rest of the day.

The next day, which was a Saturday, I met up with the other guy who is from Purdue. His name is Jiang Guo (pronounced Jee-ang Gwa) and he is from China, but he has been here in Magdeburg for two weeks already so he knew the place a bit. He reminded me that I needed to get some groceries because everything closes in Germany on Sundays...everything. The supermarkets in Germany are mostly the same as they are in America but there are a lot of things packaged differently. For example, all the juices are in tall 1 liter bottles and all the milk is in the cartons that soy milk is packaged in and it isn't always refrigerated. Most of the meats I couldn't read so I just grabbed whatever looked decent and was inexpensive. I went a safe route and got some soups and the stuff for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Also bottled water is mostly mineral water, you know the stuff that is like carbonated water but isn't. For breakfast, I opted for cereal and milk, but the cereal here isn't the crispy crunchy kind. It looks something like honey bunches of oats but all the oats are soft and the flakes only have a small crisp to them. Its not bad, just not what I'm used to having for cereal.

Later that night Jiang and I went to "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaft," which in English means Science Night. It is a pretty big deal here in Magdeburg because there are quite a few Universities and research Institutes, which means that there is a ton of science that goes down here. There is also some historical significance to Magdeburg and some fundamental science experiments. I won't ramble into that because I don't quite understand all of it myself. Suffice to say, Jiang and I wandered our way around the city and saw a lot of really cool science exhibits. Luckily for us most Germans in the science world have to speak decent English so once we asked if they could explain all of the details they just explained in German and now in English, they were happy to oblige.

This leads me to something that I have never really experienced before. I am an alien. I don't know the language, I don't know the culture, and there is no one that is really like me here. For the first time, I am quite alone. I may look like other Germans, but I can't really connect with them. Language is a much bigger barrier than I thought. I don't really have friends or family here that I can rely on like I always been able to in the past. Jiang is a nice guy and will surely become a good friend, but there are other Chinese people here that he hangs out with from time to time, leaving me by myself. This has been a good thing though because it has led me to do two things: 1. catch up on some much needed sleep 2. spend time alone with God. The latter has been some sweet time where I have really been able to connect with God. He has shown me what it is truly like to be a "stranger and exile" (Hebrew 11:13), and what it means to be in a world but not of it.

God is good and He blessed me with some time to get to know some Germans. Astrid, who is the Ph D student that I will be working with in my research, invited me to come play some frisbee golf with her and her friends. Finally this was something I was comfortable with, I love throwing frisbees. So it was fun to play and relax for an evening. Later, we got some pizza and ate some chocolate covered grapes on a stick. I know it sounds odd, but it was delicious. Easily the largest grapes I have ever seen.

Five days in and overall I have to say its been good. I'll keep you posted.

*The picture above is of a building that was in the park where we played disc golf. Its apparently filled with all sorts of science and math related activities for kids.

Preparations

Today is the day I leave for Germany. I'm pretty excited since this is my first time leaving the country. I'll be heading to Magdeburg, Germany to research and theorize upon hydrogen fuel cells. Its definitely an honor and privilege to be working at the Max Planck Institute, an institute that is named after such a highly esteemed pioneering scientist.
My hope in this blog is to document my experiences and feelings while in Germany. I also desire to seek to glorify God to fullest in this blog. It is just as much a record for myself and others that want to follow my experiences.
It will be about 24 hours worth of travel for me as I'll arrive in Germany at about 8:05 am (thats 2:05 am for those on eastern standard time).
Well that is it for now...I guess my next post will be in Germany.