A day in the life of a NALCO intern
The article chronicles a typical day during my internship at the National Aluminium Company, Mines and Refinery Complex, at Damanjodi.
The alarm rings. I reach to my side and turn it off. Somewhere, my subconscious self tells me to get up and wash those clothes lying in my bag, but my sleepy mind tunes it out and decides to wait for the next alarm by sleeping again.
7:10 am – the dutiful alarm rings once again. I open my eyes, turn it off again, not realizing that it is the last of the three alarms I set. My eyes close, and when they open again, a sudden panic sets in on me, I turn to look at my phone and see that it’s 7:35. I jolt awake and drop my phone in the process. Perfect. I just hope it’s not broken. The moment of trepidation passes as I see that it’s safe. I scramble into the bathroom to brush and take a bath.
Let me give you a little context as to why waking up at 7:35 is a disaster. My PS station is at the National Aluminium Company, Refinery and Mines Complex, Damanjodi. The working hours are 8 to 5, six days a week, and the 17 of us from all three campuses of BITS are trainees for the summer.
Let me tell you a little bit about the plant as well. Its primary purpose is to obtain alumina from the raw Bauxite so that it can be sent to the other plant in Angul to obtain aluminium. So, the entire refinery uses various techniques to produce alumina through a process called Bayer’s Process.
So, coming back to today, I rushed to get ready by 8. Got there by 8:10, hurriedly woke my roommates and waited for them to get ready as well. By the time we got ready, called an auto and reached the gate, it was 9:20. After a little drama at the gate for being late, we went to have breakfast at the canteen and then went to our respective departments. I had been allotted the Steam and Power Plant (SPP), which served the double purpose of generating steam to be used in the process and generating electricity as a by-product. I went to meet my mentor, and he sat me down and explained how a boiler works. Since I have only completed my second year, I have limited knowledge of things that concern the plant, and whatever I’ve been learning here is almost entirely new.
I listened to him with a combination of fascination and boredom, and when he had finished with the basic outline, he sent me to the boiler control room to visit the actual thing. A site engineer showed me around the place, explaining how things worked while showing me the different components and connections that worked perfectly in harmony to produce the desired results. I will not go into the technical details, partly because I don’t know them completely, but mostly because I wouldn’t want you getting bored with them. After the site visit, I went back to my mentor’s office. My days till now had mostly consisted of him teaching me things that I would learn in my third year, and their practical applications. I soon got used to the routine, and have begun to learn quite a few things, which I’m sure will help me in my studies.
I went back around 11:30, and the two of us discussed how water was converted to steam and then superheated, through the boiler and its accessories. Although it sounds like a simple process, there is more to it than meets the eye. Every little detail has to be taken care of; every parameter scrutinized if the entire apparatus has to function as per requirement.
He told me to study about boiler auxiliaries and mountings. Usually, he asks me to come back in the afternoon for another site visit, but today was different. He told me that without at least a basic knowledge of what’s going on in the system, a site visit would not be beneficial. He therefore let me go back to the hostel at 1, telling me to come prepared tomorrow.
I walked the 3 kilometres to the main gate, elated at the half-day and got into an auto that took me back to my hostel. Another day gone, where I learnt a little, experienced a new marvel of engineering, satisfied a little bit of my curiosity, and got an unexpected let off as well.
A good day indeed.