Kroonenberg tot officier benoemd

Kroonenberg krijgt de onderscheiding omdat hij als wetenschapper internationaal naam heeft gemaakt op het gebied van geologie en klimaat en omdat hij een gedreven docent is die onderwijs verbindt aan onderzoek.

‘Hij heeft er als docent, hoogleraar aan de TU Delft en Universiteit Wageningen, wetenschapper, schrijver, expert en adviseur voor gezorgd dat mensen dieper wilden graven op het gebied van geologie’, meldt de gemeente.

Name: Juan Marcelo Gutierrez Alcaraz
Nationality: Bolivian
Supervisor: Professor Bram Ferreira (faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Subject: The GenPowerBox
Thesis defense: In about a year

“I develop power generation systems for yachts. Electronics is my passion and I enjoy being close to water. It gives me the feeling of complete freedom. Yachts now have big boxes situated all over the ship with converters inside that change the fluctuating output from a diesel generator into a line output of 230 volts, which allows people to use, for instance, a stereo, washing machine and other electronic equipment on board. But these boxes take up lots of space, so I’m trying to integrate them all into one. Normally a single box would require massive cooling, but that is because the converters are cooled with fans. I’m developing a cooling system that uses seawater, which requires me to design a completely new heat exchanger for this purpose. One of the challenges I face is that I must prevent oceanic microorganisms from colonizing the channels inside the heat exchanger.

I also want the power generation system to be less noisy. Currently, the generator runs at a fixed rotational velocity of 3500 rounds per minute, but in many cases people don’t need a lot of power. If you’re only recharging your cell phone battery, for instance, you only need about 40 watts. The generator should therefore be able to run at lower speed and make less noise.
My research is being paid for by a company called Mastervolt. My objective is to develop the integrated power generation system, which is a very practical aim, yet at the same time render my research ‘PhD-worthy’.

What is scientific about my research? At the university, the focus is on the theoretical part of system integration. When you only work for a company, the work is more empirical. You solve problems as they come, whereas with the scientific approach you try to foresee the problems.
I still have one year to go. This summer I’ll assemble all the parts I have designed and subsequently ordered from manufacturers. This will be the most exciting time of my research. And I’m pretty sure it will all work. I have triple checked all my equations. 

I’m not sure what I’ll do after I’ve finished. Maybe I’ll start a company here, specialized in power management. I feel more like an entrepreneur than a scientist. In my home country, Bolivia, I already own a company that does business in electronics. And now, together with two MSc students and another PhD student, I’m trying to start up a company here that develops equipment to measure power use in large buildings. Take for example the energy consumption for this faculty building: the total consumption is known, yet it’s not clear how much energy is being used by each floor, department or group. This is interesting information to know if you want to reduce energy consumption.”