Partner Profile: Raven Shilander | |
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You hold a Third Degree Blackbelt in Taekwondo. How has your martial arts background influenced you, if at all?
Yes, it has definitely influenced me! I’m proud of my martial arts accomplishments. I studied martial arts for 10 years back home in Holland, Michigan, at Championship Martial Arts, formerly Chan's Martial Arts. Not only was it a great community to be a part of, but Taekwondo also taught me so many new skills and abilities. That sport pushed me physically and mentally because you have to do the same forms and techniques over and over with the same power and intensity. You push yourself to a level that you wouldn’t have thought you were capable of. It really does a great job building confidence when you land a particular kick or technique, or when you successfully beat your buddy in a sparring match. I gained a lot of good leadership skills from my experience with Taekwondo, because I was able to help some of the younger kids learn new techniques. My martial arts training helped me stay focused and determined throughout my studies as well, because Chemical Engineering is hard. It's a hard field. I try to remind my friends of that fact, especially after difficult exams, “ You are taking one of the most difficult majors here at the University of Michigan, which is one of the most competitive and academically rigorous schools in the entire country.”
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How did you get into engineering?
Growing up, I realized I was really good at problem solving and math, and I knew I wanted to make a tangible impact on the world. I wanted to be able to say that I did something–that I actually made something happen–when I got older. I figured engineering would be the perfect field to go into.
My grandfather was also an engineer. He worked on a lot of power plants all over the US. I knew I wanted to focus more on sustainability, including emissions, within engineering, because of the effects on my local community that I saw from the power plants that my grandfather was building. He is now super interested in renewable energy and carbon capture scrubbing systems, because he worked in coal power plants for his entire life. He's had a couple health side effects from that. And he's also seen what it's done to the local water, like Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan.
University of Michigan was the natural choice for me. It’s one of the best engineering schools in the country, it's close to home, and it's got an amazing program with a lot of different opportunities for research, project teams, and student groups like the Global CO2 Initiative Student Association (GCISA).
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What's your experience been like here at U-M as a female engineer?
There are actually a ton of female chemical engineers. In my year and in my department, it seems that half of the students are female. There are a lot of great women that I've met within the College of Engineering (COE). There's a lot of support for women, especially here in COE. You have these giant group organizations like the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Science and Engineering, that put on so many great events to foster a community of women engineers.
At times, I have felt that there was some competition between women in engineering & STEM, as if they were trying to prove themselves. There wasn't always a cohesive support structure. But as you meet people in your major, you create more of a network. I've amassed a pretty great group of friends–male and female–here at U-M so far in STEM and engineering specifically.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been times when male colleagues on a project team didn’t always make women team members feel as valued or respected. Sometimes women’s ideas are shot down more frequently than their male counterpart’s ideas. But I honestly have not had too much of that happen to me and I’m sure that you have bad apples like that in every major. Overall, it's a really great community here in engineering.
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How did you get involved with GCISA?
Originally, I was in multiple other sustainability related student organizations, because I knew that's what I wanted to focus on. As I looked more into carbon capture, I realized GCISA would be the perfect way for me to get hands-on experience and learn a lot more about what I actually want to be doing in my future career.
GCISA has a lot of great resources. They are partnered with the Global CO2 Initiative and also have close ties with the Open Air Collective. I think that's really exciting. Our president, Kianna, shared a lot of different job and internship opportunities with us as well. There are also the project teams, which are a great way to get hands-on experience and learn more about carbon capture without having to be in a research lab or at a job. The organization is really flexible for students who are interested in the field, but don't know exactly what they want to do. It's a really great way to gain experience.
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How would you describe your experience with GCISA?
My experience in GCISA has been great! Coming in, I was a little apprehensive about what I would be able to do, sinceI had no background knowledge in carbon capture technology. What would it look like? How would you build a column with chemicals to absorb this? How do you store it? But the project team leads did a great job trying to make sure we were all on the same page. We all looked into research and had a lot of meetings together. There's a lot of communication among members. We all worked on different parts of it and came together to make sure everyone was on the same page. And that helps a lot.
Through this organization, I learned technical and practical skills (e.g. what adsorption isotherms were at different temperatures, how to make a process flow sheet, how to use modeling software like “Aspen”, what are the necessary safety measures when handling these chemicals) as well as some soft skills (e.g. how to adapt, how to manage time).
It was also exciting for me to apply what I was learning in classrooms. For instance, I was able to apply what I learned in my “Separations and Mass Heat Transfer” class to the physical thing in front of me through a tangible product. The projects were not always successful, but the experiences were still important for me because I was able to achieve those skills and apply what I was learning in class to real tangible products.
Even though it was challenging learning all these new things initially, and sometimes felt overwhelming, it’s so motivating now that we're actually seeing results. It doesn't feel like work. It's like a hobby now–like a fun, exciting thing.
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Why did you decide to take on leadership of GCISA and what are your plans for it?
I decided to take on leadership because Kianna and Martin, the two core members who grew GCISA from this tiny little seed to the large group that it is now, were graduating. I see these new students who are so passionate about carbon capture technology regularly showing up to all the meetings. I love this group of people so much, and I want to make sure that this team continues in the future.
I actually have a few things that I'm planning on helping GCI expand on for the fall. First, I want to have more recruiting events to get more students interested in GCISA in general as well as specific projects like the solar project team and project CO2BALT. Project CO2BALT is a design, build, and test application of a direct air carbon capture (DACC) unit. We run compressed air through a column full of sorbents (currently Zeolite, but there are various sorbents we're planning on testing) to capture and store CO2.
I know that the solar project team is making good progress filling up their solar arrays and being able to store some of that energy into a battery that they just recently bought. As for project team CO2BALT, we're going to be looking into new sorbent material next fall instead of just using zeolite. We're going to look into forming amine grafted silica gel beads, which will be a more hands on experience for the more chemistry oriented students in the club. U-M students can join either of these projects through our website.
We are hoping to acquire more space and equipment (e.g. a convection oven and some other wet lab resources) in order to facilitate these projects. I also want more people to come to our mass meetings and showcase seminars, because I think everyone should know about it. It's a really cool and exciting field!
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Have you run into any misconceptions about CCU?
I have heard people say that it's not going to be feasible to weave a lot of this carbon capture technology into existing plants and infrastructure. People say it’s too expensive or not as efficient. I would counter with the example of the expansion of electric vehicles or the expansion of solar power and renewable energy. These technologies were initially very expensive, but as the technology improved, the cost decreased. I recently read a report that examined energy measurements for different businesses of roughly the same area and the same energy requirements. The researchers found that it was actually cheaper to power buildings with solar power and renewable energy relative to traditional natural gas or coal fired energy. It goes to show you that, as new technology improves, it becomes cheaper and the demand for it grows. I think the same is going to be said for carbon capture technology in the near future.
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What will you be doing this summer?
Earlier in May, through The Green Program, I went to Iceland and was able to explore and learn about both geothermal and hydropower energy generated from Iceland's natural resources and their location over the mid-Atlantic ridge fault line. Learning about how they harness this energy from the ground to heat their city water as well as generate 100% renewable electricity was amazing! I also had the incredible opportunity to hike some beautiful mountains and meet a ton of sustainability-oriented individuals like myself. We formed teams to work together and created a capstone project at the end of the trip surrounding the renewable energy topic of our choice. I recommend that any student interested in sustainability check out The Green Program–it is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity!
When I returned, I started an internship position at Nalco water - Ecolab in Phoenix, Arizona. I work in the Global High Tech sector and my main project this summer involves testing water quality coming from a variety of our clients' cooling tower systems. It may not sound that interesting to a non-STEM major, but honestly, it is super fun so far. My coworkers and management team are great–they even bought us boba tea on the first day in the lab! And it's so exciting to actually see what I'm learning in the classroom on such a large scale.
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Do you have any advice for young women and girls who are interested in this field?
Yes, go for it! If you're interested in it, do it. Don't let anyone tell you that you might not be as successful in this field because you don't have “the right” background. You can always get the background that you need. I know a lot of people are hesitant to jump into something new or research something that they're excited about just because they think, “Oh, well, I don't have the math background. I don't have the physics background. I haven't taken this course.” My response to them would be, “The internet is an amazing thing.” I'm taking all of these high level classes at U-M. And that's definitely given me the background knowledge that I need to feel confident going into these fields. However, you can also teach yourself a lot of this material by Google searches, Google scholar, or reading other research papers.
The field is getting a lot more diverse. There are a lot of women in the College of Engineering community. If there's ever a time for women to pursue STEM in carbon capture and engineering specifically, it's now!
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What inspires you?
People like yourself, people who are in the field, and who are really passionate about sustainability and carbon capture. It's often hard to visualize this becoming a tangible and progressive movement, to see it actually happening. But when you're in a room with 50 other individuals who also feel the same way and who are working toward it, you realize, “Wow, this can actually happen!”
This *is* happening– legislation is currently being drafted and written. Project teams and other companies are implementing this carbon capture technology. That's the most motivating and inspiring thing for me. I try to remind myself of why I'm taking these difficult classes, and why I'm on this stressful educational path–it's because of the community and where we're going.
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How can U-M students get involved in GCISA?
They can check out our website, or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn. Our website has a link to join our Slack channel and an interest form if students want to get more involved in GCISA. After you fill out this form, a member of GCI will reach out to you and show you where you can find all of our open source materials and descriptions of what we've done so far, as well as relevant research papers. Interested students can easily start getting some background knowledge. It's really easy for students to get involved– they just have to click a couple of links!
To see more pictures of Raven's trip to Iceland, please visit the GCI website.
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U-M is seeking emerging CCU companies to participate in "Innovation for Impact - Climate Change", a company-in-residence program, offered through U-M's Center for Entrepreneurship. This program offers emerging companies the chance to work with student teams for two semesters on a project defined by the companies. There is no cost to the companies but a company mentor must be available to meet (virtually) with their team weekly for progress reporting, feedback, and guidance. Please contact Tasha Beery for more information.
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US Department of Energy's Carbon Negative Shot Summit
July 20-21, 2022
Carbon Negative Shot is the US government’s first major effort in CDR and is an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation in technologies and approaches that will remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere by capturing and durably storing it at gigaton scales for less than $100/net metric ton of CO2-equivalent (CO2e).
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