The CaT 39-3

Dispersing Agents

T s 39-3 C a

Splitting: A tough distillation

From the Board

A lot has happened this year and now it’s up to us, the Educational and Internal Affairs, to reflect upon this year. Unfortunately, a bit later than normal this year, but better late than never.

At the time of writing this, the summer vacation is only one week away. After a year of hard work, we are looking forward to relaxing a bit. We are going to end this year on a high note with the CSE barbeque and the active members activity coming up just before the end of the academic year. This last week we will also have the pleasure to taste the first bottles of beer brewed by the brand-new PilsCie!

I (Max, Internal Affairs) have been very busy in the second part of this year, to help all the committees organize activities again after the corona measures have all gone away. We have had lots of traditional activities, as well as some new ones. Both the Grolsch excursion and FyCo BBQ have come back this year after both were impossible last year.

We have also had new activities like the GameCie A-LAN-Bic party or the FyCo Waterskiing activity. It is good to see the association come back to life and to also see the first-years finally properly integrating with the rest of the association.

There also was room again for educational activities, as the EduCo has been very busy this year with organizing study nights with the new quality agreement money, as well as the TOSTIs and feedback sessions. The Commissioners of Educational Affairs of all S&T associations have also been busy with Project S&T; a feedback session where the onboarding of the University of Twente has been discussed extensively. Besides all these committee activities we, as the 58th Board of C.T.S.G. Alembic, organized a lot of activities. We are especially proud of the dies week with a cantus, the aforementioned Grolsch Tour, a brunch in the VIP room of the Horst, the BorrelCie Mayfest, the FyCo/RecreaCie BBQ and as piece de resistance: the gala in Ricco Latino. All in all, we can look back on a great year where we could finally leave the COVID pandemic behind us and we are already looking forward to the kick-in and all the new students and potential members for Alembic. Also, a new Board will take over with a new vision and all kinds of new activities. We think it is going to be a great success and hope to see you next year.

Kind regards,

Jochem Schuerman & Max Veldman Educational Affairs & Internal Affairs of C.T.S.G. Alembic

From the Editor

Let me start with a big congratulations, especially for those of you who have made it through another academic year! The mercury has already risen to tropical temperatures, and most of you hopefully survived the heat along with the exam stress and project deadlines.

Besides my well-wishes to you, hard workers, for all your efforts in 2022, let us take a moment to celebrate an historical milestone for the CaT! For two hundred editions, various members of our study association have come and go and teamed up to make the CaT magazine a reality.

By: Esli Diepenbroek

Therefore, in this celebratory edition, we will not only show our fair share of content and entertainment, but also take a trip down memory lane and highlight some of our finest work!

So, what’s to find in this edition? A glimpse into our CaT’s history, experiences from an Alps-exploring Alembicer, research from the membrane cluster, and a puzzle to get you through the summer period. All in all, a wide variety of topics to suit our wide variety of readers!

Last but least, I would like to say (read: type) a few farewell words as editor-in-chief of the CaT. For me it has been an amazing and creative journey, these past five years. And as always, I sincerely hope you enjoy the read!

Dip-dying your synthetic wig to “make your hair great again”

By: Esli Diepenbroek

Where can my science contribute, and make an impact?

You might wonder this whenever you are experimenting in the lab, working on the newest material, process or fabrication technology. Enough to tear your hair out, perhaps? I sure hope not. Still, for the unfortunate ones out here, research from the Donghua University of Shanghai might give you the sustainable remedy for a slowly balding head [1].

By coating your average wig with a keratin/graphene oxide composite, you regain some of your good-ol’ natural hair’s properties. Just like your (ex-)full head of hair, dip-dyed wigs are moisturizing, UV resistant and somewhat heat dissipating. Ideal for our ever-increasing temperatures in the summer season!

So, how is it done? By a coating technique known by all of us: Langmuir-Blodgett deposition. A simple method, which is easily scalable, and allows for a great enhancement of a wig’s performance. What science isn’t able to contribute to, am I right?!

Source:

S. Du. (2022) High-Performance Wigs via the LangmuirBlodgett Deposition of Keratin/Graphene Oxide posites. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.

Proud to be found: Longest bacteria ever discovered!

By: Esli Diepenbroek

What do you know about bacteria? An unicellular microorganism, possessing cell walls but no organelles nor organized nucleus. And they are small, mostly measured to be on the micrometer scale. Not at all visible with the naked eye. Or…?

Let me present to you the Thiomargarita magnifica, the longest bacteria known to now exist. Almost 50 times bigger than most bacteria, its length reaches up to a staggering 1 centimeters. Upon its discovery, scientists believed it to be an eukaryote, consisting of cellular filaments called ‘pepins’. Now, with the power of various microscopic techniques like X-ray tomography, confocal laser scanning microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, the contrary seems to be true. The specimen turns out to be one cell! And fun fact: it eats via our favorite type of activity: chemosynthesis[1].

Source:

J. Volland. (2022) A centimeter-long bacterium with DNA compartmentalized in membrane-bound organelles. Science.

Alembic| Internachos with Salma

By: Jeanine ter Horst

Whith the year almost at it’s end, we managed to claim a spot in Salma’s busy agenda. During lunch we asked her all we wanted to know about her and her experiences in the Netherlands.

Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Salma, I am a master student of Chemical Engineering and I’m doing the Molecular and Materials Engineering track. I am 24 years old and I come from Mexico. I am about to finish the first year of the masters and will very soon start with my internship and master thesis. I do not know what will come next but I am pretty sure that it will be exciting.

Where in Mexico are you from?

I come from a very central state that is called Tlaxcala. The name is spelled in a native language of Mexico and not Spanish. It is one of the smallest and one of the safest places in Mexico and quite different from here. It is a small city in a Mexican context, so about 100.000 people.

Why did you decide to come to the Netherlands?

Actually, I came to the Netherlands as a coincidence, because I wanted to do my masters in Germany. I was looking into Chemical Engineering masters that I liked, and then I found the UT randomly during a Google search.

The program matched my interests really well, way better than any master in Germany. I decided to apply and that’s how I ended up here! I was already arranging everything for Germany when I got accepted to the UT. I also received a scholarship which is really nice because the tuition fees are very high for students outside of the EU.

What did you study before?

I did my bachelors in Chemical Engineering, pure Chemical Engineering. It was in Ibero, in Puebla Mexico. It was actually not really related to what I am doing here which is a good thing because I am not so into process technology.

How do you like the education here?

In the beginning it was very tough, but now I am actually really liking it. I enjoy the set-up of the courses; a bit of selfstudy and physical lectures. I also really appreciate the Dutch education and the fact that you always have a second chance. In Mexico, we don’t have resits; you just have to redo the course the next year. I never failed an exam in Mexico because I didn’t want to pay an extra year of tuition, which gave me a lot of stress. I think it is really good for mental health because you never know if you will have a bad day. In Mexico, I was always aiming for a 10 and now I know that when I am not feeling well or too stressed, I have a second chance.

What do you think about the Dutch culture and people?

I think actually that Dutch people are really nice. I was very impressed by that! I had studied in Germany before, for one semester, and I had expected that Dutch people would be the same as Germans. However, I was positively surprised. Dutch people are really warm and more welcoming.

“I really appreciate that you always have a second chance for exams”

If it is a bit hard, as soon as you break a barrier, they really try to get to know you and make you involved in what they are doing. It took some time but now I am really appreciative of the culture and the people. I made some really good Dutch friends!

What do you like to do next to your studies?

I really like to hang out with friends. I also think it is very important when you are in a different country, to have support from friends, international or Dutch. I also like to play tennis. I joined the tennis association Ludica. I also tried padel because I have some Spanish friends and it is really their sport, so they taught me how to play. And I also enjoy singing, in my room. It is therapeutic to me. I’ve also visited quite some cities in the Netherlands and Germany. I try to visit a new city every one or two weeks, to get to know the culture. I have already seen most of the big Dutch cities and my favorite so far is Utrecht. It is a good combination of a historical and modern city.

You mentioned that you joined Ludica, are you also active there?

I joined the international committee and I was quite active in the first semester. Unfortunately, it has been a bit on pause the last few weeks because I am so busy. I do try to join activities and training but they are often full. I have some organization trouble, as my time management is still not on the Dutch level so I have to work on that.

An international teacher once told me that during a training about the Netherlands, he learned about the Dutch Agenda. Is that what you mean? Yes, you have learned your whole life to plan anything. I also had to get used to planning everything beforehand. I was really not used to using an agenda, let alone making appointments with friends two weeks in advance. I am mostly the kind of person that wants to do something right now, or tomorrow. Here, you really have to plan everything you do, it is crazy, but I do enjoy it now. Part of my Mexican nature is that I still want to do everything in the moment and even if I make a plan, I never follow it.

What do you miss the most of Mexico? I miss plenty of things, but mostly the food. The food is one of the greatest things about Mexico, honestly. I try to cook Mexican food for myself and sometimes it turns out pretty good but there is nothing like real authentic tacos. You can not find those here and I crave it so much. Also, I miss my family. I have not been to Mexico for almost a year. For Christmas, I was in France with a friend, because it felt too soon to go back. I wanted to go back in the summer but now I have to plan my internship, and I need to find a new house, so I will not have the time this summer unfortunately. Probably the first possibility to go to Mexico is in December, and in the meantime I will just have to miss the food. My mom will come here during the summer to visit me and we can travel across Europe together.

Are you planning to stay in the Netherlands after your masters?

Actually, I do want to stay in the netherlands. My first plan is to do a PhD here. I am not sure if I want to stay in Twente or go to a different university. Otherwise I will try to find a job in the Netherlands, but I always had the idea of doing a PhD.

Spreek je al een beetje Nederlands?

I am starting to learn Dutch, but it is a challenge. I only know the word ‘smoesjes’ because I have smoesjes for everything. I also know a few basics but that’s it.

What’s your favorite thing about the Netherlands?

I really like how open it is to everyone, to other cultures and people. You can really be yourself and do not have to hide parts of yourself. I also really like the second chances part. You can have a bad day or moment in your life, but still continue with your studies.

If you could name one thing about Mexico, to convince our readers to go and visit, what would it be, the food? Yes, the food and the weather; it is nice the whole year!

“I only know the word ‘smoesjes’ because I have smoesjes for everything“

Alpe d’Horst: Climbing stairs for cancer research

In collaboration with the University of Twente, we are setting up a stair climbing campaign to raise money and awareness for the Dutch Cancer Society. With a group of hundreds of students/ employees from the UT, Saxion and other cities, we want to climb the Horst Tower for 6 days this summer.

Many people in our house have been directly affected by the effects of cancer. When we heard that the Alpe d’HuZes was canceled in 2020, we decided to contribute in the form of a stair-climbing campaign in our house. The inspiration for the campaign came from Alpe d’HuZes itself. This is an action in which participants climb the 1,100 meter high Alpe d’Huez six times. This normally takes place annually, but the action was canceled in 2020 due to the corona crisis.

At that time, we climbed the stairs of our house for 72 hours, divided among sixteen people in relay form. With this we have raised more than €11,000 for the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF)!

Now, two years later, cancer is still a major influence on our lives for all of us. This applies not only to us, but also to many other people who are affected in one way or another by this disease.

by: Nick Witmarsum

That is why we are committed again to raise money for the Dutch Cancer Society this year.

This year the action will take place in the Horst Tower, the tallest building of the UT. The intended number of participants is between 350 and 750 people. Teams with a size of 3 to 6 people can register for a time slot of one hour. If you register with a team of 6, you only have to walk for 10 minutes during the entire week. The teams will run continuously day and night from Monday August 1st to Sunday August 7th

Following the stair climbing action, there will be a barbecue for all participants. Afterwards we will have a closing party on Sunday August 7th, open to all students.

The beer price will be slightly higher here and there will also be fun actions to gather donations, whereby these donations and the profit of the beer will go to the Dutch Cancer Society. For more information about the promotion and registration, please visit www.alpedhorst.nl. You can also find us on our socials. If you are reading this before the registration deadline, register quickly with a team of friends or with Alembic itself! We hope to see you at the event or at the party!

In the 17th century, the tomato was generally feared throughout the entirety of Europe. The fruit was also known as the “poison apple”, as people would be poisoned after eating one. Nowadays the tomato is a very well known and beloved product. So, what was the cause of this initial fear of tomatoes?

In the 17th century, tableware of the European upper class contained high levels of lead. Tomatoes, known for being high in acidity, would latch on lead particles when placed on such distinct tableware. At the time, people were not familiar with lead poisoning and the tomato was seen as the wrongdoer.

Lead did not only affect the reputation of tomatoes, it was also unintentionally used in chemical processes. For instance, the sweetening of wine. In ancient Rome, the upper class used ‘Sapa’, a syrup that was made from fermented grape juice, to sweeten their wine. This grape juice was, however, fermented in a leaded vessel. When the grape juice would be heated, lead would leach into the syrup to form lead acetate. This is what gave Sapa its sweet taste. Not only was it used to remove unpleasant flavours, but it also removed bacteria, making it act as a preservative at the same time. Some studies suspected that there could be around 20 milligrams of lead per litre of wine. This had great influence on the health of the Roman aristocrats, as fertility rates dropped and there was an increase in psychosis. These physical and mental symptoms of lead poisoning were in those times referred as colic Pictonum. Colic outbreaks continued to plague the world until 1696 in which Eberhard Gockel, a physician, found the connection of this plague to the preparation method of wine and advised the duke of the nearby area to ban the use of lead in wine altogether. However, in other parts of Europe, wine was continued to be produced using lead, which caused colic outbreaks to continue.

The shockingly long history of lead poisoning

By: Wietse Uittenbogaard

So why was lead used to manufacture products in the first place? Lead was one of the few metals that were easy to work with. Metals, such as iron, were much more difficult to work with. This caused lead to be used in many products, from ceramics to cosmetics.

Even though lead was a dangerous metal, it remained an important ingredient all the way to the 20th century for the production of various goods such as paints, pesticides, cosmetics and from additives to gasoline. The lead industry association even campaigned for the use of lead in products, while hushing the science that pointed out its toxicity. The lead industry association made it possible for tetraethyllead (TEL) to be added as an additive for gasoline. TEL was mainly used as an antiknock agent. This allowed for higher compression ratios

in the combustion engine, increasing the efficiency of the engine as well as the peak power. When TEL gasoline was used, soil and air in urban areas would be contaminated with lead, resulting in various cases of lead poisoning as food grown from the soil would contain lead. From the year 1975, US emission regulations called for a gradual reduction of TEL. And in 1999 lead-replacement additives were tested and approved for commercial use. However, it was not until 2014 that TEL was banned worldwide.

Although lead is a compound that is known for its high toxicity, it was still used in many products and led to various physical and mental illnesses. Thankfully, lead is not as commonly applied in products as it used to be. So next time you eat a tomato, you do not have to be afraid of being poisoned.

Micropollutant removal by combining biological and nanofiltration processes

By: Rob Lammertink

There is growing awareness and concern about the presence of so called organic micro-pollutants (OMPs) in our surface water. When you take medicines, you expel a lot of the active substances when you urinate. Those small, organic molecules are examples of micro-pollutants. When they get into the water, these drug residues are harmful not only to humans but also to life in and around the water. Micropollutants concern a large cocktail of thousands of different substances.

OMPs are very small organic molecules (100-1000 Da), stemming from consumer products or from medicinal, agricultural or industrial origin that have the potential to cause long-term harm to humans and the environment. Municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWTPs) are considered a hotspot for the release of OMPs into the environment as they were never designed to remove OMPs. For example, for many OMPs the retention times in the bioreactor are simply too low to achieve sufficient removal.

We propose a new process that would significantly increase OMP removal in the bioreactor, without having to increase its footprint. In the proposed process the MWTP effluent is treated by a novel nanofiltration (NF) membrane that allows controlled passage of ions, but retains the OMPs. The OMP concentrate is then recycled to the bioreactor, significantly increasing the OMP retention time (from 12 h up to 20 days), and thereby their removal. The NF permeate will be of a very high quality, containing just ions, organic molecules smaller than 100 Dalton and water.

To realize this process, an unique new type of nanofiltration membrane will first be developed that rejects OMPs while allowing permeation of ions. For this we rely on the very versatile system of polyelectrolyte multilayer NF membranes, of which the membrane properties can be tuned by the choice of polyelectrolyte and the coating conditions.

With this promising system we can develop highly stable membranes that separate purely on size, rejecting OMPs without significant charge based exclusion that would hinder ion permeation. Initial experiments with such a NF system have already shown 98% OMP pollutant rejection for a cocktail of 5 small OMPs (200 to 400 Dalton), with a NaCl retention of just 10-20%.

Moreover, the rejection is known to be strongly dependent on the membrane properties and process conditions. In this project we will aim to achieve an excellent understanding of the transport phenomena of OMPs and ions in order to understand how to tune the process conditions to achieve even better performance.

Moreover, the effect that MP recycle stream has on the bioreactor will be studied in detail.

“we can develop highly stable membranes that separate purely on size”

Illustration of a pore modified with a layer-by-layer, based on different electrolyte pairs.

Nano-sieves

A membrane – a sort of very fine sieve –allows only water and some minerals to pass through. However, the residual water that remains has a higher concentration of drug residues, which requires further treatment. In this project we aim to tackle this residual water by sending it back to a bioreactor, where the drug residues are broken down. A bioreactor is frequently already installed at wastewater treatment facilities but is unable to break down the drug residues adequately. Sending the water back increases the time available to the bioreactor to break down the substances. That will therefore enable total removal.

The nano-sieves are based on layer-bylayer surface modified membranes. Such layer-by-layer consists of alternating polyelectrolytes, typically a polycation and polyanion. The added surface layer provides a tuning mechanism regarding retention of ions and micropollutants. Different types of polyelectrolytes, number of layers, and conditions of deposition, provide a great diversity of membrane properties. Via experiments and numerical modelling, we obtain a thorough understanding regarding the transport of species through such layers. This is required in order to implement these membranes in the combined process with a bioreactor.

Miniature wastewater treatment

A pilot represents the present wastewater treatment facility in Enschede, with the addition of the new membrane filtration unit. This plant will filter one thousand liters per hour. That is substantially more than in the laboratories at the UT. The plant is based on membranes for which the basis was developed at the UT, and which are being deployed globally by NX Filtration. The project was shaped by a large consortium, consisting of waterboards (Rijn en Ijssel, Vechtstromen, Aa en Maas, and Vallei en Veluwe), an equipment manufacturer (Nijhuis), research and education institutes (KWR, Saxion, STOWA), and a drinking water company (Oasen), to ensure effective knowledge transfer.

A crucial aspect of the pilot concerns investigating how the biological degradation and membrane retention and recycling operate combined. Due to the recycling, the biology is exposed to different compositions of micropollutants and is expected to adjust to these conditions. Together with Wageningen University and Research, the effect of micropollutant recycling to the biological treatment will be investigated thoroughly. We hope that this provides a strong synergy between membrane and biological processes such that micropollutants can be adequately treated.

“Different types of polyelectrolytes, number of layers, and conditions of deposition, provide a great diversity of membrane properties”

Part of the wastewater treatment pilot, containing the biological treatment unit.

C3 Splitting A Tough Distillation

By: Tim Schuttevaer

Distillation is the key separation method used in the chemical industry due to its high capacities and its capability to reach very high degrees of separation. Therefore, it is no surprise that the average chemical plant has several of these distillation towers to separate various kinds of chemical mixtures. In practice, the ease of separation is strongly dependent on the nature of the chemicals that are being separated. If the relative volatility between compounds is high, it implies that the separation of these compounds is easy and thus requires a low amount of stages. However, some mixtures have a very small difference in volatility, making the separation by distillation innately more difficult. In this article, an example of a tough distillation will be discussed and the challenges that are brought along with it are investigated.

The C3 splitter

One such example is the separation of propane and propylene. These two molecules are processed on a large scale in the chemical industry due to the application of the latter as a base chemical for products such as polypropylene and acrylonitrile. When considering the molecules propane and propylene, it can be remarked that the two compounds are largely similar. After all, they are both carbon chains of length 3 and have no side groups. The only thing that differs is the double bond in propylene, which is not present in propane. The boiling points of propane (-42 °C) and propylene (-47.6 °C) only differ by a small amount due to the aforementioned similarity between the compounds.

The overall similarity between the compounds causes the theoretical amount of stages to be in the order of magnitude of 100 to 200, much more than the average distillation. The C3splitting process is also a notably energyintensive process due to the high reflux and reboiler ratios that are required to reach the desired propylene recovery and purity (which are generally in the range of 99.0% and 99.5% respectively). All in all, it is safe to say the process to split propane from propylene is quite a tough separation.

In practice

The separation of propane and propylene is applied a lot in practice due to the high demand of propylene as a building block for several other chemicals. As discussed before, the theoretical difficulty of the C3-splitting separation makes for a very tough distillation in practice. The high number of stages required for the separation between the two compounds translates to very large dimensions for an industrial C3 splitter. Generally, the C3 splitter is a column that is over 100 meters in height and 10 meters in diameter. The separator is generally designed to be a tray column, requiring additional resources to incorporate the hundreds of stages that are generally required in a C3 splitter.

The entire distillation column weighs about 1400 tonnes, about as heavy as five Boeing 747 jets. These distillation column dimensions are only outmatched by some crude distillation units but are generally among the largest twocomponent separators that are used in the chemical industry. Furthermore, a C3 splitter is often operated at 20 bar of pressure to account for the low boiling points of the two components, increasing the required thickness of the column to make sure it meets its mechanical demands. Alternatively, the separation can be carried out at lower pressures, which requires the column to be operated under cryogenic conditions due to the low boiling points of propane and propylene.

Recompression in a C3-Splitter

From construction to operation

A distillation column of such immense dimensions creates a large challenge in the field of construction, logistics and operation. After constructing the components of the distillation column using copious amounts of steel, the transportation process is set in place, something which is a major logistical puzzle and takes a lot of cooperation with transportation services and local authorities. For example, the transportation of a new 1050-tonne C3 splitter for the chemical company KPI required a vehicle with 64 axle lines (256 wheels) and a 20-person crew to move the column across a 54-kilometer distance. The crew had to narrowly navigate through the roads, evading traffic lights and other obstacles along the way. The average speed of this massive transport was about 3.5 km/h.

Once the distillation column has arrived on the industrial site, a new challenge opens up for the construction crew: getting the thing to stand up straight. In this process, several specialized cranes are used to carefully lift and tilt the distillation column in its intended place. Construction of the crane on-site is just about as intensive as the transportation of the distillation column; the crane is transported in several truck runs and assembled afterwards on-site. Once the crane is lifted in place, the construction of all auxiliary pieces of equipment is carried out to make the distillation column ready for operation. All in all, it is an enormous operation to say the least.

Improvements to the process

Such an intensive chemical process as the separation of propane and propylene is a common subject of research to improve the energy efficiency of the process. Two major improvements that can be made to the C3 splitting process are vapour recompression and the application of heat pumps to save energy in the separation column. In a vapour recompression system, the top stream of the distillation column is compressed and used as a heat exchange medium for the reboiler of the distillation column. That way, the heat that is otherwise lost from condensing the top stream is able to be recycled within the system itself. Such an improvement can drastically reduce the heating requirements of the columns, thus saving a significant amount of energy required in the reboiler unit of the column.

It is no wonder that there is a considerable quantity of research on this topic, as this technique can make the process much more energetically and economically viable.

Alternatives to the process

While distillation is generally considered to be the benchmark industrial separation method, it does not hurt to consider other separation methods for such a closeboiling mixture, especially considering the high energy intensity of the process. There are several alternatives that have been explored by researchers that might make the separation of propane and propylene easier. The question here is of course whether these techniques could outmatch the old working horse of distillation on an industrial scale.

For instance, it is possible to introduce a solvent to the binary mixture of components to ease the separation. The underlying principle of this is that one of the components has a higher affinity to mix with this solvent than the other. Aqueous acrylonitrile is such a compound that can be used, as propylene has a higher affinity for this solvent than propane. This alternative could greatly cut the energy requirements for the process by making the separation easier but brings along the issue of requiring an additional distillation column to separate the acrylonitrile and propylene, which would result in additional capital and operating expenses. Furthermore, a feed of fresh solvent will have to be added into the system continuously since part of it will be lost in the process.It is also possible to employ a membrane-driven process, exploiting the difference in size between the two molecules to carry out the separation.

A membrane separation process could prove to be a viable alternative to distillation, although its application on an industrial scale is still in question. The application of membranes could possibly be integrated into a membrane distillation column setup, which combines the two processes to possibly allow for a more energy-efficient separation than conventional distillation.

Conclusion

It is clear that the separation of propane and propylene is far from easy. This tough separation requires the use of very large distillation columns and requires a lot of energy, but is essential in the chemical industry as it is currently the most viable method to obtain pure propylene, a valuable building block. The intensity of the process is a motivation for engineers to investigate improvement possibilities to the existing system or alternative means of separation. Techniques such as vapour recompression can help reduce the heating requirements of the distillation column by a significant amount, while alternatives such as extractive distillation or membrane separations could pose as a viable alternative. It is definitely interesting to see where innovation will bring us in the future, as it could very well be that conventional distillation might not always remain the go-to option for an industrial separation process. Now that would be game-changing.

Sources:

[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b03432

[2] https://www.mammoet.com/news/mammoet-delivers-109m-c3-splitter-to-new-borealis-site-in-kallo

[3] https://www.sarens.com/about/projects/c3-splitter-for-gaschemical-complex-in-kazakhstan.htm

A tale of 200 CaTs

By: Jeanine ter Horst

There are a lot of well known stories and fairy tales about animals; the 3 little pigs, the wolf and the 7 young kids (read: baby goats) and the 101 dalmatians. Now the latter might sound impressive - and to be fair, 101 dogs is an excessive amount - but what if I tell you that Alembic can top this story. This article is about 200 CaTs, and no, it is not fiction.

In 1968, Alembic presented the very first edition of a magazine called ‘DE KAT’, or in English ‘THE CAT’. The idea behind the name was that it would catalyze the spread of information throughout the chemical technology community at the university. After 12 successful years, the magazine was stopped due to a lack of editors and increasing printing costs; luckily that’s all in the past now - wink wink. Thankfully, the worth of the magazine was recognized again after only 4 years and thus a ‘new magazine’ was set up: THe CaT. The capital TH was a reference to the Technische Hogeschool - the name of our university before it had earned the title of ‘university’ - and got lost somewhere throughout the years. Even though the name of our study program has changed since then - from Chemische Technologie to Scheikundige Technologie to the current Chemical Science and Engineering - the capital CT did remain. You might wonder why the magazine was considered ‘new’ after a change of name, while this most certainly is not the case for the association. Well, to that I have only one thing to say: that’s a good question and please do not tell Newton. Just in case someone does tell; the association never stopped existing so that’s why it is clearly a very different situation.

I will not bore you with further ramblings about the history of our magazine. Instead, I will show our past with some titbits from previous - mainly very old - editions. As we were not always this modern, our international readers might have to ask a Dutch (speaking) friend for help.

Before the cancel-culture was invented

Cartels and Elections

By: Casper van Dongen

It has already been half a year since the article ‘’Parallels’’ was published on U-Today. Just like every other week, this was one of the opinions of Niels ter Meer, a 23-year-old Mechanical Engineering student. He draws parallels between politicians and study association boards, both supposedly unqualified in their position. As a current board member and easily annoyed person, I see this as a chance to discuss his accusations.

If you look on the U-Today website around the time the article was published, you will see that within half a week an old board member already responded with a comparable story to what you will read now. I do have to admit, as soon as I set my mind to writing this piece, I began to dig too deep. The most recent article he published, at the time of writing, started with a correction he made about a wrong assumption, or ‘’gut feeling’’1 as he called it. This made me curious as to how thorough this person was with his writing and research. I decided to read all 21 articles2 I could find on U-Today written by Niels der Meer. As you can guess, my weekend was a whole lot of fun, but I did not want to admit to such a form of hypocrisy and do some ‘’proper’’ research.

One of the things he discussed twice is the elections on campus. His first article gives an insight into the voter turn-out in recent years.

I believe he makes a very valid point, and the elections are most definitely worth the discussion. The error is, however, in the statement he makes about the diversity of the candidates, as he admitted himself. Acknowledging your mistake and returning to the subject to rectify it does mean something, but not 2 sentences later he explains the ease people take into annoying columnists, clearly showing the frustration he has for doing so.

Although I agree with the fact that people are unknowledgeable at the start of their candidate period, I do not think there are people that are qualified in the way he expects them to be. Study associations are not profit-run companies that need an efficient board to continuously perform at the highest level. We are all just students that want to give back to this little community and learn in the process of it. The learning process already starts as a candidate board member, which is around 5 months in our case. In these months they should have been shown the ropes by their predecessors as Luuk mentions5. This should make the start of the board year a lot smoother and even if cases call for more experience or qualification, many active and helpful members are eager to help. I am speaking from my own experience but also from experiences of other board members, so I believe there is no need to rectify a gut feeling.

The 21 articles, spread over approximately one and a half years, discuss a wide variety of topics. There might be one or two recurring items, but generally, the campus and its students are widely talked about.

The rest of the article still elaborates on the structural diversity problem the electoral on campus bears, but I will not further pay attention to this problem as there is one that draws way more attention to me personally. We now circle back to the ‘’Parallels’’ article I mentioned. Without hesitation, the study association boards are called unqualified. And I could argue how incredibly qualified I believe us (myself?) to be, but that would be useless arguing and most of all, untrue. Although some board members are convinced of their superiority, most of us are not especially good at anything or at least not better than others.

Ter Meer refers to another article he wrote3 where he complained about the lacking knowledge of board members at moments such as ‘’Piranhagate’’4.

Another comment that grinds my gears was on the benefits a board experience has on UT jobs. The argument is that a board year does not count as experience and should not be considered when applying for another job or even rules to prioritize people that have not served on a board. I do not know what his opinion is on internships, side jobs or full-time jobs, but I do think he counts them as experience.

Maybe because it is voluntary and without pay, it should not be considered work? Again, I am making assumptions and becoming the enemy I swore not to become.

“I did not want to admit to a form of hypocrisy”

“Without hesitation, the study association boards are called unqualified.”

“We are all just students that want to give back to this little community”

To further condemn his condemnations, I would like to make the argument that some compensations are in place. This is, however, a subject that most conflicts with my interests, if not the rest. I just want to stress that it is very nice to receive some materialistic rewards for the work we do such as clothing or fun drinks with a lot of people. My time has almost come, and I have received plenty. This just goes to show how conflicted I am with this entire discussion. It is hard to judge myself and look at it from a neutral perspective, but I do think that the perspective of the author is also clouded.

The conclusion tends towards a simple feud between an opinionated columnist and some exasperated board members. If you want to know more about this feud or the general opinions of this columnist, look at the articles on U-Today because there is enough to read. Enough to fill your travels during the weekend. I must say I enjoyed myself reading it and writing this piece, but I have also concluded that doing so is not very good for my blood pressure. Hopefully, this will be my first and last opinion article and there will be no rectifications made. Then again, what are the chances he will read this article….

Sources:

1. (‘’my gut feeling … as wrong’’) Dear future representatives

2. Alle artikelen listen ofzo

3. Swimming lesson (15-12-2021)

4. www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/2029964/penningmeester-steelt-geld-van

5. -enschedese-zwemvereniging-piranha-om-te-investeren-in-crypto

6. Press F to pay respects

Sjaars 101: Icing

by: Casper van Dongen

Approximately 23 years ago, Smirnoff created the infamous Ice. The change of culture in clubs made the desire for a new refreshing drink high. Smirnoff stepped up their vodka game and created this new lemon drink. The game that evolved after this has been popularized across the globe. The rules of the game? Explained for you exclusively, right here, right now.

A bottle of Ice, traditionally 700 milliliters in volume, is hidden in a place with a reasonable environment. Cold is too hard to chug and a warm drink is even harder. Room temperature is always a safe option and a well-timed Ice is usually suffering enough. It should always be explicitly hidden and not unexpectedly pushed in someone’s face or anywhere clearly visible. Some classic spots are the toilet, a bag or a closet. The retail location is naturally not a viable place.

After a bottle has been found it is customary to drink it whole within a matter of seconds. However, some may find seconds challenging and may take longer but effort is what counts.

Offering a straw with the Ice bottle is quite useful as it reduces drinking time significantly. Plastic straws are quite good but in current society these can be hard to find and alternatives are often worse than drinking without.

You are not allowed to participate in the game if you have an unfinished Ice bottle, so there is somewhat of an incentive to actually drink it, beside the fun of it. There is, however, a way of getting out. There should always be a witness at the encounter. Whether the witness should be the one hiding it is open for discussion. Finding an Ice bottle in a random place at a random moment does have its charms, so there is an argument to be made.

There is also another way of avoiding the consummation of those beautiful 0.7 liters. Many are not familiar with this strategy but at an Ice-confrontation, carrying a similar such beverage makes the hider become the victim. Not only does the hider then have to absorb the initial refreshment but also the one carried by the first victim. Of course not everybody is continuously transporting these items from place to place, but in some cases it might be useful information.

The gist of the game is clearly to bother people with a large liquid volume with some alcohol content in a somewhat friendly manner. However, there are often cases where the game can be too much, in many different ways. Being a bit reasonable is always welcomed as to keep the game fun, although writing this piece will probably not reduce the amount played.

From now on everyone should be well informed about the game and hopefully everyone can play the game as intended. You can always enjoy the drink in your free time in any way you like but do not be surprised when people feel a tiny bit awkward about it.

“I am making assumptions and becoming the enemy I swore not to become.”

Introducing the candidate

As of April the 25th, Alembic has a candidate board. They would like to introduce themselves formally and tell a little bit about where they come from and what they like to do.

Candidate Chairman

Hi,

My name is Melle and I am Chairman of the Candidate 59th board of C.T.S.G. Alembic. As my name might suggest, I have been born and raised in the beautiful country called Friesland. Over there, my usual activities are kaatsen (Frisian sport), sailing the blue lakes of Friesland and playing some games of korfball with my friends.

As a native Frisian speaker, you might still hear me say some Frisian sentences in the Alembic room as I’ve been having some trouble unlearning it.

Furthermore, I’m almost two decades old, a second year student of CSE who is currently following module 8a, process design, and is also chairman of the KIKSTart 2022! Also I’m a big fan of Sc Heerenveen, and during their games I always scream the national anthem of Friesland out loud.

Iplayed at V.V. Smitshoek or on the street at the basketball veldje (basket). A funny thing I discovered is that the current right back of The Netherlands plays football there too!

Football was very popular when I was young, and had to be taken very seriously. At least as elementary kids that was the norm, and our teachers back then might have stepped in to break up some small fights.

Candidate Treasurer

Hello everyone, My name is Mario, the candidate treasurer who will take you on a tour to the village of Oegstgeest. As a fun exercise for the internationals, try to pronounce that name out loud. Oegstgeest is located in the so-called bollenstreek, which meant I had the luxury of cycling to school through endless fields of colorful tulips every spring.

Candidate Secretary

Dear reader,

As you might know I am Kevin, the secretary of the candidate board. Currently I am 20 years old and when I moved here, I was only 17. I moved from Rhoon-Portland, and nót Rotterdam (where I was born), which is what most people assume.

As a kid/teenager I always played sports, which is something I definitely got from my mother. The most important sport for me and my family was football.

At our high school that was less the case, because then they were solved by ourselves. One of my best memories that I have from my high school is the first day of school after Feyenoord became champions of the Netherlands. That day there was a magical atmosphere in the school, and well, actually the whole city of Rotterdam. At the moment, I also like to go home to my parents so I can catch up with them or my friends who study mostly in Rotterdam or Delft.

“I always scream the anthem of Friesland out loud”

“our teachers back then might have stepped in to break up some small fights”

candidate board

Candidate Commissioner of Educational Affairs

Hey everyone,

My name is Jip and I’m currently 19 years old. I am the candidate Commissioner of Educational Affairs and I will take you on a short tour through the deep forest that is called Vaassen. I moved here when I was 15 years old, but not on free will. Imagine coming home one day and your parents just casually mention over dinner you’re going to move away from all your friends and hobbies and now have to cycle 30 minutes just to go to school.

Safe to say I was not amused, especially after I saw the state of the house. However, after the renovation I noticed the peace and quiet of the forest which I never really got to appreciate as I was living in a busy neighborhood my entire childhood. And even now that I am living in Enschede for around two years already, I often come back to enjoy the silence and the peace the forest brings with it.

Commissioner of External Affairs

It wasn’t always a plus though, as one time a tourist bus had decided to park in the middle of the cycling path and blocked the entire road, which got me late to school and meant I had to stay in class until late that day. Sadly my parents have moved out of Oegstgeest ever since I came to Twente, so I only go back every few months to meet up with old friends.

Hi, I am Djurre Reitsma, Commissioner of External Affairs of the Candidate 59th board of C.T.S.G. Alembic. I am 20 years old and a second year bachelor student of CSE. As you might have guessed from my name, I am from Friesland and thus speak Frisian with the candidate Chairman. I come from a small village and have played soccer all my life, until after a knee injury my doctor advised me to quit. Now I am practicing survival run on campus whenever I have the time.

Within Alembic you can find me as treasurer & external affairs of the KIKSTart or in the TAP serving beer as a member of the BorrelCie.

Candidate Commissioner of Internal Affairs

Dear reader of the CaT, After all of my fellow candidate board members have introduced themselves, it is time to introduce myself.

I am Evan van der Geer, Commissioner of Internal Affairs of the Candidate 59th board of C.T.S.G. Alembic. I am 20 years old by the time you will read this, and I am a second year bachelor student of CSE. It is time to travel from Vaassen to Zeewolde, so follow along!

Next year I will be responsible for the contact from Alembic to companies and for career orientation activities like lunch lectures, workshops and excursions. I hope to have an amazing time next year together with our candidate board. I will see you around!

Before I moved to Enschede, I lived with my parents in Zeewolde, where I loved to play football. After living in Enschede for a year, I switched from football to rowing, which I practice at the rowing association D.R.V. Euros. There I spent quite some time! Besides that, most of my time is spent at Alembic, where I am part of several committees and love to play in the soccer team, STront aan C60.

I hope to see many of you next year!

Candidate

“in the TAP serving beer as a member of the BorrelCie”

“I noticed the peace and quiet of the forest”

Internship Into the Swiss Alps!

When I started contacting companies by the end of September last year, I didn’t expect to find an internship quickly, but the opposite happened. I have always wanted to spend some time abroad during my studies and because I filled my minor space with a pre-master for the second master program I’m following, I decided to do this during the internship in the master’s phase.

Even though the corona pandemic experienced an upswing, I got into contact with somebody from the company Sulzer, located in Switzerland, quite quickly. It became clear to me that people there tend to plan ahead and take care of everything, which became a recurrent topic during my stay. Initially I had a desire to leave Europe but due to the corona measures that were in place at the time I started, I relaxed my aspirations. Looking back, it might have been possible to do my internship further away, since at the time I actually left, the Russian invasion in Ukraine dominated the news (instead of Corona). Nevertheless, I have no regrets going to Switzerland and hopefully, after reading these pages, you understand it too.

In its early days, Sulzer started as an industrial engineering company focused on steam and later diesel engines and various other mechanical products. Nowadays, it has a completely different focus with its three main divisions focused on flow equipment, industrial services and chemical technology. It should not be too much of a surprise that it is the latter division I am now pursuing my internship in. Although largely used

by: Remko van Gestel

in chemical processes, distillation is not always feasible or desired.

In specific cases, crystallisation is more feasible in terms of energy consumption or to prevent thermal degradation of compounds. Crystallisation can then be the solution and is, as I found out, actually more widely used in the chemical and food industry than I thought. An additional fun fact, crystallisation is considered to be the oldest chemical unit operation. Since it still faces some limitations, only a relatively small part of the Chemical Technology division of Sulzer focuses on this separation method.

My task within the R&D department is to study the influences of different geometries of the heat exchange surface in two different types of melt crystallizers. For this, I have quite a large lab-scale plant to my disposal, specifically built for my experiments. My colleagues are predominantly occupied with their own tasks. However, they are eager to help me and not seldomly do we drink some beers after work.

Now moving on to the most fun part, my experiences besides the internshiprelated work. The first thing you may want to know is that, though German language skills are good for the most essential communication, it won’t help you too much in understanding Swiss German. I live in Basel, which is located in the corner of the Swiss border with Germany and France. Therefore, many of my colleagues are from France and Germany. Even Germans sometimes prefer to talk English with Swiss people! Besides the weird

language, that - by the way - sounds a bit Scandinavian to me, people are very kind here. For example, even when you don’t have priority in traffic, cars tend to stop for you when you’re by foot or bike. Also if you are a man!

As said before, everything is taken care of here in Switzerland. There are public toilets everywhere in the city centre, dog poop bags are freely available, the public transport network is extensive and delays are almost unheard of. The latter comes at a price though. When you think trains are expensive in The Netherlands, you may be shocked by the prices here. But it’s not just the public transport that is expensive; everything is far from cheap. For the people here, it’s not an issue since they get paid almost twice as much as in The Netherlands. On the other hand, if you prefer owning a car, Switzerland is the place to be. Gasoline and car prices are even lower than in The Netherlands. One more thing on the well-organised list is that in the 3.5 months I’m here I get almost one and a half week of free days (in addition to public holidays).

That brings me to the next point. In my free time so far, I have discovered that Basel is much more than the city that you

cross by car when driving down to the south of Europe. Its city centre is quite pretty actually. The city is known for its cultural offer, as there are museums about almost any topic you can think of. Since the temperatures are generally between 25-30°C, the Rhine offers a great activity that you are able to enjoy in The Netherlands; letting you be carried along with the current from one side of the city centre to the other. You have a beautiful view of the city while floating around in the water.

Unfortunately, in the pilot plant hall where I run my experiments, there is no air-conditioning, so I’m often working in the same temperatures as outside. But I take it for granted, especially considering all that my stay here has to offer me. Already in this part of Switzerland, nature is beautiful. Green fields, hills and rivers make the landscape very diverse. Yet, even further to the south, you enter the Alps. The views one can find there are

astonishing, with large lakes surrounded by mountains and crystal clear rivers. Perfect conditions for a hike. The cities here are not very large (not weird considering there are only 8.6 million inhabitants) but worth visiting, especially Bern.

My room is located in a student complex, mainly occupied by international students. Most of them are self-centred, but I’ve made some connections with whom I regularly spend time. We do have a living room that is used for social activities every now and then.

At the time of writing, I am just halfway through my internship. However, I’m already happy with my choice of going here, and I would advise everybody to pay a visit to Switzerland. And more generally spend some time in your studies abroad!

The Dies Week

By: Charlotte van Reijen

On the 29th of March, Alembic celebrated her 57th Dies Natalis. Such a commemorable event had to be celebrated in style.

When we were part of the candidate board last year we were already thinking about what to do for the Dies. Since in 2020 the lustrum couldn’t continue due to corona, we wanted to have a big celebration. We also thought it was important to organize a lot of activities, because integration was an important pointa on our policy plan. We felt like one big week full of activities to celebrate our Dies would help with said integration and also increase the morale of committees to organize more activities themselves.

With the increased budget we got for the Dies thanks to the profit distribution of the 57th Board we could start planning our week. Our plans were great… our planning skills, however, not so much. When planning the Dies week, we found out that almost every CSE student, both bachelor and master, had at least one exam or deadline during the week we originally wanted to pick, so other plans had to be made.

Although it was not ideal, we decided to move the week to May. Even though that’s more than a month away from our actual Dies Natalis it eventually all worked out when choosing the theme for the week. Inspired by James Bond: Die Another Day, we chose the theme 0057: Dies Another Day.

Our actual Dies Natalis

Of course, even though the activity week was moved, we still had to celebrate on the 29th of March. And a birthday celebration of course calls for cake! Throughout the entire day we handed out free cake in the Alembic rooms, which everyone seemed to enjoy. During the evening it was time to celebrate with the latest Christmas dinner ever, rebranded to the Dies dinner. The DiCie organized this traditional Alembic activity for eighty lucky guests, who enjoyed an Oktoberfest themed evening filled with delicious food, joy and of course lots and lots of wine.

Monday

The first day of our activity week started out nice and easy. While on our side it was a bit more stressful to make sure everything for the rest of the week was in order, the day marked a calm beginning to a not so calm week. During the afternoon, people had the opportunity to watch a lecture and participate in a case study organized by Pentair. After spending a couple of hours exercising their brains on this everyone had the opportunity to speak one on one with the guest from Pentair during a drink.

In the evening we had the official opening of the activity week on the O&O square for which we ordered food and organized an outside drink. The week had begun and the party could get started.

Tuesday

Since people seemed to enjoy the cake during the Dies so much, we decided to do it all over again: the entire relaxroom was filled with 7 cakes and a lot of hungry people.

Of course we also had to be prepared to burn the calories gained from eating all that cake, for which the afternoon activity was perfect. In order to prepare for the gala we had a dance workshop organized by 4happy feet. Together with a group of more than 20 people we excitedly

learned a cha cha cha routine and danced our hearts out, which left us feeling ready to conquer the dance floor during the gala that would be held later in the week.

Naturally we also had to have an evening activity, the Mayfest (previously known as the Sinterkerst Oktoberfest, which originally was supposed to be celebrated in December), which was organized by the lovely members of the BorrelCie. Lots of people came dressed up in lederhosen or dirndls and everyone got their own limited edition Alembic pitcher. We had lots of fun, played games and drank the night away. All in all it was quite an eventful day.

Wednesday

Since the festivities the previous evening lasted until the small hours we decided to take it easy for a bit and schedule no activities during the morning. The afternoon was kicked off with another classic Alembic activity: the Grolsch excursion. With a group of pretty hungover students (slightly less than planned, since some people had fallen after yesterday evening’s shenanigans) we cycled all the way to their brewery to enjoy an interesting tour in which we were taught all there is to know about brewing beer. During the tasting afterwards, we were joined by a couple of engineers from Grolsch who answered all of our more in depth questions about the process itself, which made it a fun and enriching experience.

Today seemed to be the day of classics, since during the evening it was time for yet another classic Alembic activity: the cantus. We enjoyed hours upon hours of drinking, singing and fun. The evening came to a climax during a “patatje oorlog” themed food fight in which the members of the candidate board were the main target.

Although the evening was filled with enjoyment all around, the aftermath was much less appreciated. Scraping half dried up satesaus and mayonnaise from the walls and cleaning up raw eggs from the ceiling and insides of the lights hadn’t exactly been part of our

Thursday

On Thursday it was time to take a rest for a bit. For us, most of the day was spent cleaning up the last things from the night before, handing off the Radix keys (after finally finding them again) and bringing back the van. After skillfully maneuvering the van past all the trees and roadblocks present at the grounds of the Radix, Jochem luckily broke one of Alembic’s traditions: the van survived the entire ordeal and was brought back to the garage without any damages. During the break we organized a “brakke brunch” for everyone who could use some delicious food to help them manage their hangovers.

Week

Friday

Friday evening the FYCo organized their yearly BBQ, they did so together with the RecreaCie. This seemed to be a nice and casual ending for such a busy week. Unfortunately the weather, contrary to the weather during the rest of the week, wasn’t that great. Sheltered in tents, defying the heavy winds and occasional rain clouds, they fired up the grills and prepared food for us. Even when they were done preparing the food the grills were still useful, as it turns out they make great heaters when it’s cold outside.

This was also the evening that the KIKSTart announced their theme, which coincidentally turned out to be The name is Bond: Chemical Bond (you’d almost think that this was planned, or that our creativity has gone out of the window and James Bond has apparently become our sole source of inspiration). They threw in their free keg of beer and old KIKSTarts had the chance to congratulate them on becoming the new KIKSTart.

We were lucky enough to be able to organize our brunch in the VIP conference room on the thirteenth floor of the Horst tower free of charge, which was a completely new experience for everyone. The view up there was amazing and the lunch tasted great! Other than that this day was uneventful.

evening plans, but alas, it had to be done. However, when having finished most of this loathsome task, we found out that the keys of the Radix were still inside the backpack of a comrade that had already fallen due to their high alcohol intake and panic ensued. After multiple attempts at reaching out to said comrade it was decided that the best course of action was to call it a day, hoping that nobody would rob the abandoned Radix building during the night and come back the next morning.

When everyone had finished their food and could no longer stand the cold, we moved to the TAP to have an after drink, which turned out to be way longer than planned. We drank, laughed and shared stories far into the night.

Saturday

Even though it was the first day of the weekend, we hadn’t finished all of our activities just yet. For a nice change of pace from all the drinking of the previous activities, we planned a sports day.

Dies Week|

(Although the bicycle ride to the location probably turned out to be the most sportive part of the day).

Unlike your traditional sports day we played games during which you still had to move a lot and you were challenged in different ways. It started with a so-called “break-in”, an activity which is kind of like an escape room, but then the exact opposite of that. Different puzzles and challenges were spread out over a large field, and it was up to us to complete all of those challenges in order to crack the code to a locked room in the middle of said field.

Our second activity of the day consisted of two hours of climbing through fun and challenging parkours, which were set up in the treetops. With different levels of courses everyone had the chance to enjoy this activity at their own pace Of course our all-inclusive sports day wouldn’t be complete without some coffee and tea with a treat to start the day off, a nutritious lunch to help us get through the day and a luxury BBQ with unlimited drinks to finish it off.

The ending

To celebrate the official ending of our activity week we organized a gala. You might think that a gala on a Monday evening is a little bit weird, but apparently we weren’t even the only ones that had a gala on this specific evening. This gala had its own (partly different) theme, 0057: Casino Royale (which coincidentally is the first James Bond film that came out after Die Another Day, I guess everything did work out after all).

It was amazing to see how many people from different years joined us, especially from the first, second and third year, large groups of students joined the gala. It was also fun to see how everyone was dancing with each other; it didn’t matter from which year people were, everyone joined in on the fun and danced together. The venue was exactly the right size for us, with a separate room for our photo booth, and our DJ, the drinks and the dancing floor all in the same place. A bit more space might have been convenient for the opening dance though, as we all wanted to perform the routine we had so eagerly learned the previous week. After that everyone enjoyed their unlimited drinks and the music, had fun and danced the night away.

All in all a great ending to a great week of celebrations!

60th Dies Natalis such a great celebration

By: Maarten Jager

Past May, the university celebrated its 60th anniversary after its founding in 1961 as the Technische Hogeschool Twente. Like many other activities, the 12th lustrum was postponed by a year due to COVID-19, but could be ‘fully’ celebrated in 2022. As you may have missed this ‘glorious’ affair entirely, I have set out a few of the most spectacular events taking place during this memorable celebration.

It is common knowledge that any self respecting feast ought to have a theme connecting its various components. Naturally, the UT lustrum is no exception. Hence, all festivities are related to the overarching theme: “Every Connection Has A Story”, which was meant to ‘break’ the sober period of corona and ‘reconnect all of us’. The anniversary period was kicked-off with the ‘Unveiling of The Head’ on May 19th.

To show the UT is not only home to science, but also to art and architecture, the University formally opened a 10 metre high copper-head (which looks suspiciously similar to the home of Squidward in Spongebob) at the entrance of the campus.

The structure is made to represent a ‘lookout for the future’ and the ‘primitive brain’, or like the artist describes it: “There is a human being in every machine”.

The main event of the lustrum was the Dies Natalis itself, happening on May 20th. During this day, invitees listened to a ceremonial talk by Tom Veldkamp,

followed by awarding of honorary doctorates to Prince Constantijn and a number of interesting policy makers. Afterwards, a luxury diner was hosted in the Horst Canteen for all attendees. Sadly, few to none students were invited to attend the lectures or the diner. Luckily for us all, everyone was invited to watch a livestream from home to watch the lectures and the esteemed guests enjoying their dinner. Lastly, an alumni day was organised to reconnect graduates to the UT.

At the end of the month, no open party, reception or drink was organised for students to be able to celebrate the 60 year existence of the university or to connect to its lecturers or fellow students. Once again, the university has shown their interest does not lie in connecting students with each other or with coworkers, but rather to emphasise its importance and high regard to influential people, whilst investing huge amounts of money into the construction of copperheads (and I do not suppose this sudden available money has anything to do with halting of the studiefinanciering).

“to break the sober period of corona and reconnect all of us”

Activities |

Alembic| RecreaCie: Escape Room

By: Robin Holleman

In June, the RecreaCie organized the Escape Room. This was also done last year and was repeated since it had been such a large success. However, unlike last year, this time it could be organized physically and it was decided the escape room would take place in the relax room of Alembic.

The story involved the 58th board which had become murderous and cannibalistic with even Charlotte going down this dark path. The ominous notes they left, scribbles on the whiteboard and a UV light, could be used to solve puzzles. The puzzles would lead to passcodes to the computer or lockboxes scattered across the room. The chaotic nature of the relax room made it so that these lockboxes and notes weren’t always easy to find.

In total five teams of four participated but only three teams made it out. One team made it out with just mere seconds on the clock. The 56th board finished the earliest, although a point could be made that the timer was started too late. The RecreaCie hopes to make the escape room a yearly tradition as, even though it takes quite a bit of work to set up, both years it has been a huge success.

ONCS

By: Charlotte van Reijen

FYCo waterskiing

By: Coen Bruin

The FYCo waterskiing took place on the 14th of June. The weather was nice and sunny and there was almost no wind. Ideal situations for waterskiing. The first few tries of most people, however, sadly resulted in a dive in less than 2 seconds. Luckily, after a few tries almost everyone could stand up. Some were even allowed to try wakeboarding, though no one was able to do any tricks. After two very quick hours it was already over. This was already (one of the only and) last activities of the FYCo and we hope to see you next year!!

At the end of May the time had finally come, after three long years since the previous edition, the ONCS 2022 took place. After not having taken place for so long due to corona, everyone was excited to finally be able to participate in the ONCS again. A group of 42 enthusiastic Alembicers travelled to Utrecht to enjoy three beautiful days of sports and partying.

The journey towards the Galgenwaard was a memorable one: while enjoying beers and games participants conquered the Dutch public transport. The big group of nervous first, second and third year students looked forward to their first time participating, while the ONCS veterans shared their stories from the good old times of previous editions. After travelling for two long hours, having encountered an angry NS conductor and having suffered the loss of one bag and one irreplaceable object (red.: you can ask the candidate chairman for more details) we finally made our way to the arena. Here we got some time to set up our sleeping bags, after which we went upstairs to the Heksenketel to enjoy the opening party.

The next morning we were swiftly awoken by the sounds of the circle of life and people in animal onesies running around the halls. After a (for many people not long enough) night of sleep it was time to pack our sleeping bags and make room for the sports fields. During breakfast some last minute team changes were made, after which we were ready to enter the courts and sport our hearts out.

In the evening it was time for the special activity: a city walk, during which we faced several small challenges and slowly made our way to the party location for the night. One of these challenges wasn’t exactly planned, some police patrol cars came to check on us after some worried neighbours had called them about football hooligans. Apparently they didn’t appreciate our improvised mini cantus. After having reached the party location and after some struggles getting inside the party location it was finally time for the main event of the evening: the beer relays. Alembic fought hard and made it to the semi-finals, but unfortunately that’s where the beer relay adventure came to an end.

The next and final morning of the ONCS was a tough one: two nights of maybe a bit too much partying didn’t really help with getting up, packing our bags and preparing for the final day. Nevertheless, we still gave our all during the sporting events. Then it was time for the award ceremony, and unfortunately Alembic wasn’t victorious. However, this didn’t stop us from proudly singing the chemologenlied and even being the last team standing when leaving the Heksenketel.

RecreaCie: Batavierenrace

By: Max Veldman

On the 29th of April the Batavierenrace 2022 started. As usual Alembic participated with a team as well. On Friday the 29th we started the race with our night team in Nijmegen. Someone did decide to steal our ‘’hesje’’ though, which meant we got number 47 instead of 4, which was pretty sad.

The morning team had to take the bus from the Campus in Enschede at 4 AM in order to be in time for the change point in Ulft. The afternoon team took over in Barchem, and Casper van Dongen and Charlotte van Reijen, both from the 58th board, finished the race on the campus. The race itself went really well and everyone had loads of fun!

After the race on Saturday we also had a nice BBQ with Japie from Eindhoven on the grass field between Carré and Horst. Of course we also lost our deposit on the van due to damage, according to tradition, and we also wrecked someone else’s mirror. All in all it was a very fun Bata22 and the RecreaCie is already looking forward to the Bata23!

PaCo: Parent Day

By: Evan van der Geer

After an absence of two years, Alembic’s annual Parents Day finally took place again. After almost a year of planning, the parents of the first year CSE students came to Enschede. The parents were welcomed with a cup of coffee and a short talk from André ten Elshof.

After this, they enjoyed a lecture from Guido Mul, wherein he explained about the Haber-Bosch process in a way the parents could understand. This also meant that the parents had an engaging discussion at the end of the lecture, which even had to be stopped to avoid a schedule delay.

Afterwards, the parents were divided in groups and they were led around the campus to visit the Hogedruklab, the student labs, the Alembic relaxroom and a specially designed case room. Halfway during the activity rounds, it was time to have (free) lunch, something which is very popular amongst the Alembicers, but maybe even more so amongst their parents.

At the end of the day, the parents’ knowledge on several topics, such as sports, science and Alembic, was tested by means of a pubquiz. After calling out the winners of the pubquiz, the Parents Day was concluded. As usual, the parents were invited to stay for a drink in the TAP afterwards.

Overall, it was a very fun day, in which the parents of the first year students got to see what their child does on a regular day.

GameCie A-LAN-Bic Party

On a Tuesday evening late into the year, the Gamecie organised their last scheduled activity: the A-LAN-bic party. During the LAN-party we planned to play a few games together with the around 20 people that enrolled, but what followed was an action-packed evening full of shenanigans and fun.

Everyone showed up to the Noordhorst room we reserved with their laptops or desktops in tow and after some set-up, most of us started out by playing Minecraft on a server Niels had kindly set up. In our about 1-hour lasting play session, various things happened, from the establishment of the glorious ‘Sjaars-Island’ to Robin-Jan soloing the final boss of Minecraft, the ender dragon.

We also hooked up the switch from the relax room to the three projectors in front of the room on which we played various games like super smash bros, Mario kart and Astro bears. Our artistic capabilities were also tested in a very competitive game of skribbl.io in which a little more than half the group participated.

By: Sam Wolbers

During the LAN-party there was also ample opportunity to play some games in smaller decentralized groups. Some people booted up Stardew valley to dabble in some relaxed agricultural activities, combined with very careful economical management. Other people dove into a competitive game of League of Legends with still others opting to try out Team Fortress 2. All in all, it ended up being a convivial evening that gave us some much-needed downtime in the last few busy weeks of the year.

Candi Puzzle |

Candi Math Puzzle

By: Jip Hoogland

Now that you’ve gotten to know the Candidate Board a little bit better, it’s time to solve a puzzle together with them! This puzzle is all about calculations. Their six faces each have a different value. The task is to figure out how much Mario’s face is worth, enjoy!

Standard multiplication rules and importance apply.

Hint: Try to express some faces as a function of other faces

Teamwork in Education

A few weeks ago: ‘Would you like to write a contribution for the CaT, from the perspective of the faculty board and/or a personal introduction?’. Of course, that will be a pleasure! I’ll begin with a short introduction about myself and follow by writing a few words on how education relies on teamwork.

Almost 22 years ago I came to Twente, as a research scientist with a focus on assembly and characterization of micro- and nanostructured interfaces. My academic career started at the University of Utrecht with a degree in experimental physics. Subsequently, I joined the chemistry department as a PhD student to study the electrochemistry and luminescence of silicon. The combination of physics and chemistry provided an ideal background to continue as a postdoc at the VU in Amsterdam, where we worked on switchable optical properties of metal hydride thin films, by using electrochemical actuation.

By: Stefan Kooij

the opportunity to focus on teamwork in education. Teaching activities work best if students and teachers work together, facilitated by programme management and support staff.

Personally, I specifically enjoy teaching activities in which there is ample opportunity for interaction, preferably in a small-scale setting where an effective exchange of ideas and opinions leads to in-depth discussion on all sorts of topics. Such discussions may be on scientific content, but just as well on experimental challenges, or on more general skills. In the end, we can and should learn from, but also with each other. A primary prerequisite enabling effective interactions is a safe learning environment, with mutual respect for all those involved in the discussions.

But academic development is about so much more. One could say: “We’re in it together, for better or for worse.” To start with the latter, all of us have faced challenges over the past years. By standing together to make the most of sad, unfortunate or dramatic events, a strong sense of community certainly helps in dealing with them. The same holds for joyful celebrations. Many drinks and parties are organized all year round, where I always hope to meet students and staff who get together to continue discussions on whatever topic comes up.

Here I would like to highlight one recent celebration: the official opening of the homebase in Carré. Since its completion in the summer of 2020, it has been a pleasure to see so many of you sharing this space to study, to meet your peers from your own study programme, but also the other ‘triple-A’ associations located around the homebase.

Soon after joining the University of Twente, I became involved in teaching. First a single lecture in a course, soon an entire course. My teaching activities gradually expanded, and my affinity for teaching and especially interacting with students, i.e. young academic professionals, got me involved in the quality assurance committee and later the programme committee of Applied Physics. In 2015 I got the opportunity to start as programme director, which I did with great pleasure for almost 7 years. And as of January 2022 I have the privilege to be part of the faculty board as vice dean education.

I have always considered the position of programme director as ‘the best job in the world!’. You may wonder why? Well, it relates to the opportunity, privilege, and pleasure to work with devoted teachers, motivated students and qualified staff on creating the most optimal learning environment for talented and above all ambitious young people, within a community of dedicated academic professionals. Obviously, study associations play an essential role in this!

Now let me get back to ‘teamwork’. I considered writing about how we, as faculty board, work as a team on a wide variety of topics within the Science and Technology faculty. However, in a recent edition of the CaT, my predecessor Nieck Benes already summarized that very nicely in an interview. So that gives me

We officially opened the homebase by commemorating that facilities like these (there is also a homebase in the Technohal) are made possible via the quality agreements, budget which is available to improve the quality of education. To top off the party, there were ‘triple-A’ cupcakes for all students, staff and teachers. Did you notice that every cupcake with a logo was truly ‘triple-A’, combining Alembic blue, Astatine orange and Arago red?

General information

If you move or want to change your data, you can (and should) let us know by sending an email to the secretary of Alembic (secretary@alembic. utwente.nl).

Would you rather receive the CaT digitally to save the environment and with this also minimize some costs for Alembic, please mail to secretary@ alembic.utwente.nl.

Regular Drinks & VriMiBo

Every Friday from 16:00 untill 19:00, there is a Friday afternoon drink in the TAP or nowhere due to corona. The bartenders rotate between the three A-associations. What is a better way to end your week filled with lectures, practicals and other ‘thinking‘ activities. Next to this a drink every week switching on Tuesday and Thursday will be held only for Alembic members. www.linkedin.com/in/ctsgalembic www.facebook.com/group/ctsgalembic

The high that got me through my first year of university

Have you always wanted to start running but were too afraid or a bit lazy and unmotivated? Or are you just interested in some science behind the “runners high”? Or maybe you are familiar with that euphorically relaxing feeling after a run yourself?

I have been running for almost 4 years regularly, with a short rock-climbing phase in-between and have started again in 2022. Now I firmly believe I will never be able to fully let go of running. One may wonder why someone would go through an hour or more of heavy breathing and constant pain only for a chance to feel euphoric for a few minutes afterwards.

23 Editor in Chief

Casper van Dongen

Charlotte van Reijen

Esli Diepenbroek

Writers

Casper van Dongen

Charlotte van Reijen

Esli Diepenbroek

Jeanine ter Horst

Luuk Okkerman

Maarten Jager

Wietse Uittenbogaard

Guest writers

Djurre Reitsema

Evan van der Geer

Jip Hoogland

Jochem Schuerman

Kevin Smeele

Lotte van der Terp

Lucija Balint

Mario van der Wal Agraz

Max Veldman

Melle Fopma

Nick Witmarsum

Remko van Gestel

Rob Lammertink

Sam Wolbers

Stefan Kooij

Activiteiten

I must admit running can be quite a non-social, painful, and in terms of movements, a repetitive sport, but there must be a reason for plenty of people to be almost addicted to it (in some way). However, on several occasions, I have come home exhausted after a long day of classes, with more hours of work waiting, and nothing has ever helped me more than a run in-between. It was always incredible to me how much more energetic I would feel after such a strenuous sport. And somehow, all it takes is those few minutes to start, and then there is no going back. Sometimes it is even harder to start than to finish.

But to go back to the facts, there was a lot of research going on about what causes the so-called “runners high”. Some scientists suggest that this is not a scientific matter. However, some may disagree. One of the more famous reasonings is that running, along with other aerobic sports, increases endocannabinoid levels. Endocannabinoids are lipid-based neurotransmitters produced naturally in our bodies. They are still under research, but the assumption is that they play a role in regulating sleep, mood, appetite, and memory. Furthermore, some research has shown that endocannabinoids play a pivotal role in restoring homeostasis, having in mind that the lack of it is defined as stress.

For many people I have spoken to, those few runs per week are an essential part of keeping their sanity. It is that part of the day when you can finally disconnect from work, uni, and deadlines and finally reconnect with yourself.

So, if you are in doubt, I say, go running.

By: Lucija Balint