Michael Appoloni

8.00 AM

My day usually begins with me making my way to the office at 8.00 am. Currently, I am located outside of the CBD so my average commute to work takes approximately 80 minutes. However, as I use public transport for the majority of my travel, it serves as a good time to respond to any emails and plan my day out.

I arrive at the Mia Yellagonga campus and set up my desk for the day ahead. I greet my team before starting the tasks that I planned out during my travel. As a New Energy Graduate, in the New Energy Solutions team, I am focusing on the development and qualification of upcoming technology that may be used to aid the energy transition. This includes all types of technology ranging from production technology, heat transfer and compression units, storage vessels and transportation methods for new energy products such as hydrogen and ammonia.

Woodside Energy, along with many other companies and countries around the world, are actively targeting reductions to their net equity greenhouse emissions through new energy projects hence, it is exciting to be involved in projects that differ from Woodside Energy’s base business operations. During the process of developing new energy products and projects we are challenged with providing safe work standards and environments, while utilising some of the latest and innnovative technology.

9.00 AM

Today, I will be looking into the liquefaction of hydrogen. Essentially, this is the conversion of hydrogen from gas to liquid form. For hydrogen, this process is extremely challenging due to its extremely low boiling point and will be imperative to future new energy projects and transportation vessel design. This involves the development of a process that is both realistic and efficient for producing liquid hydrogen. A great way to go about this task is to break the overall liquefaction process down into smaller sub-sections and critically assess the different components that make up the sub-sections and their corresponding equipment and operating conditions. Once one sub-section has been analysed, move on to the next then once all sub-sections have been completed assess how the changes that I have made to the flowsheet have affected the overall hydrogen liquefaction process. This work will be primarily completed through available simulation software to model and predict how an actual operating plant may perform.

10.30 AM

To break up my morning, I decide to have a short 10-minute break to have a hot drink. Unfortunately, I have not developed the taste buds to enjoy coffee yet, however, I do love hot chocolate. Usually, I make one using the machines provided by Woodside Energy, but alternatively, this is a good time to potentially have a short catch-up with a colleague at one of the cafés on or surrounding the Mia Yellagonga campus before getting back to work.

12.00 PM

Around midday, I usually take my lunch break. Throughout the week I typically try to maintain a good balance between preparing and bringing food from home and buying food from one of the surrounding businesses. Today, I will be walking across to the QV1 Plaza which is a short 5-minute walk from the Woodside Energy office. Once again, this serves as a good time to leave the office, get some fresh air, stretch your legs and catch up with some other colleagues and friends. I normally try to time my lunch to avoid the lunch-time rush but unfortunately, today I was a little slow and will have to join the back of the line.

1.00 PM

After lunch, I will be heading back to my desk to continue some simulation work for the hydrogen liquefaction process I mentioned earlier. The simulation work is a part of the scope for a bigger engineering project which is expected to take months to complete. Therefore, steady progress is required to ensure the project meets the expected deadlines. Additionally, this is assisted by taking the time in the morning to plan out my goals for the day and how they will contribute to the completion of larger scopes.

Towards, the end of the day I will be involved in a meeting with some colleagues and an external contractor to learn about different methods of transferring liquid hydrogen to and from shipping vessels either at a production facility near a port or at the destination of the final user. This is just another component of design that Woodside Energy needs to consider in the development of their new energy projects. While this serves as an excellent opportunity to broaden my knowledge of the requirements to develop the hydrogen value chain, it also directly ties into the previous simulation work that I have been completing as the next step after liquefaction is the storage and transport of the liquid hydrogen. Personally, I find work to be much more rewarding when you can clearly see how the work you will be completing will contribute to the development of a large project and it is even more rewarding that the project is in the new energy space and moving towards a cleaner future.

4.00 PM

Around 4.00 PM I start to conclude my tasks for the day. To provide me with a good starting point for the following day, I like to take 5-minutes to reflect on the work that I have completed and whether or not I progressed as much as I wanted when I originally planned out my day in the morning. Overall, I think this is a good task to complete as it allows you to be accountable for the work you complete and keep track of progress for the projects you are working on. I may also briefly highlight key tasks that I may want to pick up on tomorrow to ensure they do not get forgotten. Once I have done this, I pack up my belongings and clear anything from my desk so it is suitable for another person to use before saying goodbye to my colleagues. Generally, this would be the end of my workday and I would walk back to the train station to begin my commute home. However, tonight I will be representing Woodside Energy and the New Energy function at an external event.

5.00 PM

Tonight is a bit different to my standard evening as I will be attending an event organised by one of the local universities, the University of Western Australia. The event is all about the future of energy and what that means for companies in the industry. This has a wide target audience varying from a range of engineering backgrounds, environmental & agricultural sciences, and commerce and law majors. Overall, this serves as an excellent experience to learn about what universities are doing to adapt their alumni to the changing energy mix and to communicate with students about the exciting new energy projects that Woodside Energy is developing.

As I mentioned, tonight is a bit different to my typical evening. Outside of work, I play football in my spare time therefore, I would usually attend training. Participating in a sport outside of work is a great way to stay fit and healthy, make friends and also provides yourself with something to look forward to on the weekends. Training is held twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday so once I return home, I switch out of my work uniform and make my way down to training. After training, I once again return home, eat dinner, prepare myself for tomorrow then wind down by watching some TV before repeating the process the following day.

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