Process Engineer Henry Kilburn talks about his work at MiAlgae.
I joined MiAlgae in Jan 2021, after graduating from the University of Manchester in late 2020 with a master’s degree in chemical engineering. My first role was as an associate in the technical development department, working in our lab and on our demonstrator site.
My initial focus was troubleshooting problems on our site and working on small process improvement projects which allowed me to gain a strong groundwork of understanding of the process here at MiAlgae. This has been invaluable in allowing me to grow with the company.
Over the last two years we have grown as a company and I have managed to secure a role as a process engineer in our new engineering department, where I work on all stages of the engineering design process. The role is extremely varied and I’ve enjoyed taking part in different working areas, such as designing our bioreactors, sterilisation processes, PFDs and P&IDS, systems of heat exchangers and many more!
One of the exciting things about working as an engineer for MiAlgae is that you can see the whole lifespan of a project - starting with the initial conception stage when a problem is first identified, through to the problem-solving stages in which the solution is identified, and finally arriving at the implementation stage on site. It can be satisfying to see something working on our demonstrator site which initially started as a sketch on your desk a few months ago!
I’m now on my way to being a chartered member of the IChemE, and our head of engineering is supporting me through this process. I hope to be in a position to put in my application in the next year or two and I look forward to continuing to develop my career at MiAlgae as we scale-up and commercialise.
If you want to learn more about what we do, please contact: info@mialgae.com .