Inray has commissioned many theses over the years. Collaboration between educational institutions is an important part of Inray’s operation, and the experiences of the collaboration have been very good for both the company and students. Doing a thesis in a company gives students experience of working life tasks related to their field. Depending on the situation, various research and development projects are offered as topics for the thesis, which will help to solve one of the operational challenges. In this article, Jenni talks about what it has been like to do a master’s thesis at Inray.
I am a final year student at LUT University in the degree program of environmental technology. The topic of my thesis was “Optimization of the biomass-fired power plant by utilizing the real-time fuel storage model”. The aim was to examine the accuracy of the FUELCONTROL ® Storage -storage model developed by Inray and the possibilities of the model in power plant optimization. Turning the topic into a thesis was a pretty rocky road, along which a whole scale of emotions was traversed, from frustration to irritation and finally to the feeling of happiness when the thesis was finally over. Initially, challenges were created by the fact that it was not possible to carry out the initial research testing period at the power plant. We did not lie in the fire for long and after that we tried to implement the same part of the research by simulating the test situations. This eventually crashed into incomplete input data. At this point, I had already done my thesis for almost the target time used for it, i.e. six months, and there was only a theoretical part done. Eventually, the research part of the work took shape as it is today, and the test periods were carried out at the power plant just before the plant’s revision. At this point, I gritted my teeth and continued doing the work. The initial enthusiasm for the work was no longer found at this point, but the desire to get the graduation papers in hand gave me a lot of energy to do the thesis forward. The shaping of the work towards the finished work created faith in me that yes, the complete work will eventually be achieved with success.
The best thing about doing the thesis was that I was really able to work on the thesis that had a versatile research section. The research part included test periods at the Järvenpää power plant, during which the samples necessary for the implementation of the work were taken and analyzed. The results obtained from the samples were analyzed. For my thesis, I became extensively acquainted with the supply chains of biofuels, the properties of biofuels and their challenges, and the operation of a multi-fuel power plant. I thought it was great to see how the theoretical part I collected for my thesis came to life at the power plant.
Indeed, doing the thesis seemed meaningful to me because I feel that the results of the thesis have value in use and will be utilized in the further development of the storage model. Although the progress of the thesis created momentary hesitation, I am quite pleased with the outcome of the work. Inray’s work team has a wide range of expertise and I have received a lot of support to do the work, and at the same time my own expertise, especially in bioenergy, has developed enormously. The work was part of a large project (SmartFlex), and through the thesis I got to work in a big project that unites several different participants. In the end, the work proved to be a rewarding and educational experience.