May-zing Updates: May newsletter
Carbon capture fuelling planes, Switch Health asthma detection, Voltaire energy, Internship back at UQAM, C2 Montreal, Hybrid electric planes
If you're new to my newsletter: Hey, I’m Theo, a 15-year-old in Montreal who is interested in climate change technology. I’m documenting my growth through this newsletter!
A carbon capture system to fuel planes
During the month of May, I was finishing my project on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). Essentially SAF techniques take some sort of organic matter (usually biomass) and turn it into aviation fuel (kerosene). I made content around how we can use Acetobacter xylinus (a type of cyanobacteria) to produce cellulose, getting rid of the costly pretreatment and feedstock steps that come with the Catalytic Conversion of Sugars process (a process that produces kerosene out of biomass without green hydrogen).
Here’s the article: https://medium.com/@grethermurray.theodore/a-carbon-capture-system-that-can-fuel-planes-915ffe1d149c
Here’s the video:
This project took months of research and hard work but I’m so happy it’s done! I have learned so much from this ideation experience.
Switch Health: Asthma detection
As mentioned in my previous newsletter, my team and I worked with a billion-dollar early diagnostics company called Switch Health! We presented to executives who are going to look into our solution deeper at their labs! Our solution was about detecting asthma before it grows into something bigger such as COPD.
Voltaire energy
During most of May, I was working with my team (Jens, Brooke and Anh) on energy storage to solve renewable intermittency. Basically, since the sun isn’t always shining and the wind isn’t always blowing, renewables can’t supply energy constantly. I wrote an article and a video on this topic, as well as presented my project to experts in the field.
Article: https://medium.com/@grethermurray.theodore/voltaire-energy-4f26d83e75ff
Video:
Presentation:
This was a fun experience but I lost a ton of sleep and was extremely stressed the entire way through 😂. Still, I found a project I want to continue working on during the next few months!
Internship back at UQAM
If you read my last newsletters, then you know I’ve been working at UQAM battery labs part-time since March. Last month my research was put on hold because the PH.D. student I was working with went to India to get married! But I’m back, doing research on the tortuosity and ionic conductivity of certain electrodes!
Here are a few pics:
C2 Montreal
On top of all this fun, I was given the opportunity to go to C2 Montreal for 3 days for free! I networked with a ton of people and met some of my best friends at TKS (Vinaya, Viola, Shanzeh, Anh, Jacob, Aatik, Santiago, Markus). It was an absolute blast and I loved every second of it! Hearing talks about A.I. from Yuval Noah Harari and Yoshua Bengio as well as talking to experts in the climate space such as Satvinder Flore who sees me as one of the most influential people in the climate space in the next 10 years (if I continue on the path I’m on).
Here are some pictures 😇😇:
Showcase
TKS is over 😭. Ten months of extreme growth are over! At the end of this accelerator program, we have a showcase where we show everything we’ve been working on. I presented my liquid air energy storage project to over 100 people!!
Here’s the presentation:
Hybrid electric planes with Pratt and Whitney
I was able to land an internship this summer with certcentercanada! This is a Canadian company that certifies new planes and designs. I’m going to be working with them during the summer to do tests on Pratt and Whitney’s hybrid electric plane project as well as other projects with EVtols (such as Horizon’s project).
EVtols = electric helicopters
I’m so excited to start this internship in the summer from July 10th to August 25th! My goals during this internship are to get really specific knowledge on the technology behind decarbonizing planes and get connections with companies working in this space! Huge thanks to Jean Thomassin and Phil Cole.
What’s next
EXAMS, Exams, exams ahhhhh: finals season
Villars Institute: going to Switzerland!
Summer Internship for electric planes
Thanks again! See you next time!