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Analytical Chemistry

ACHEMA 2006 Highlights Analysis, Automation

Frankfurt trade fair features wide range of instrumentation for process industries

by MICHAEL FREEMANTLE, C&EN LONDON
July 3, 2006 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 84, Issue 27

WELCOME
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Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
Visitors arrive at Galleria entrance of Frankfurt trade fair.
Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
Visitors arrive at Galleria entrance of Frankfurt trade fair.

Most industries strive to save money and improve performance. In the chemical process industries, these goals have driven the development of laboratory and analytical techniques, according to an ACHEMA trend report. A top priority, the report notes, is simplifying, accelerating, and automating analytical work, from extraction and preparation of samples to results analysis.

According to ACHEMA Committee Chairman Aldo Belloni, the development of laboratory and analytical techniques aimed at across-the-board process acceleration and automation continues unabated. In recent years, "no sector in the process industry has grown in significance as much as automation," he remarked at a press conference at the opening in May of ACHEMA 2006 in Frankfurt, Germany.

There was ample evidence of such developments in several of the exhibition groups at the process industries trade fair. One exhibition group, specifically devoted to laboratory and analytical techniques, attracted considerable visitor attention, even though the 20th Analytica international trade fair on instrumental analysis, laboratory technology, and biotechnology had been held in Munich just three weeks earlier (C&EN, May 22, page 36).

Belloni noted "with satisfaction" that the Munich show did not discourage exhibitors from signing up for ACHEMA. He observed that 700 exhibitors represented the laboratory technology sector, making it the second largest contingent at the exhibition.

In one of the halls exhibiting these techniques, Thermo Electron presented its new series of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) emission spectrometers, called the iCAP 6000 Series.

The spectrometers, which have unique charge injection device detectors, dramatically cut purge gas consumption, potentially saving customers thousands of dollars in annual operating costs, Thermo noted. They offer improved performance for the analysis of elements such as arsenic, antimony, selenium, and tellurium and are particularly suited for the needs of elemental analysis laboratories in the environmental, petrochemical, metal, food and beverage, geochemical, and cement industries, according to the firm.

Thermo also introduced a temperature control platform known as HAAKE DynaMax, for laboratory and pilot-plant applications. DynaMax units feature fast cooling and heating rates and enable precise temperatures in jacketed reactors to be maintained over a wide temperature range.

"The platform is designed to meet a variety of demands in the laboratory environment, and the first units are ideal for cooling jacketed reactors and large rotary evaporators," noted Scott Merrow, Thermo product marketing manager. "The units are adaptable, dynamic, and extremely fast while incorporating simple operating features, easy serviceability, and a high safety standard."

Malvern Instruments, which has headquarters in Malvern, England, introduced two new on-line particle size analyzers: the Malvern LPS and the Malvern Insitec D. The Malvern LPS can be used for process streams ranging from highly concentrated mineral slurries to lipid emulsions. The components of the system-for example, sampler and diluters-can be tailored to a specific process.

AND IN THIS CORNER
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Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
Michel introduces Malvern's new on-line particle size analyzer.
Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
Michel introduces Malvern's new on-line particle size analyzer.

"The Malvern Insitec D is designed for on-line particle size measurement in environments where there is a potential for dust explosions," explained Malvern Marketing Assistant Séverine Michel. Both systems rely on laser diffraction-based particle size analyzer technology.

PerkinElmer highlighted new systems for remote environmental air monitoring. The systems combine their Clarus 500 multidimensional gas chromatograph with a recently introduced family of TurboMatrix thermal desorbers. The new systems offer integrated programmable pneumatic control and allow for the automatic collection and measurement of C2-C12 hydrocarbons without the use of a liquid cryogen.

Another exhibition group focused on instrumentation, control, and automation techniques.

Automation combined with process analysis and control has become a force in the chemical, oil, gas, and biotechnology industries, notes an ACHEMA trend report on process automation. Instrumentation systems have now been developed that automatically can control complex processes, according to the report.

One of the exhibitors in this group, Polymer Laboratories, which is now part of Varian and is based in Shropshire, England, displayed its systems for automatically monitoring polymer processes. The company's ACOMP (automatic continuous on-line monitoring of polymerizations) system involves sending a dilute stream of the reactor contents through a train of detectors to measure a range of parameters that affect the progress of polymerization reactions. The parameters include temperature, percentage conversion, molecular weight, viscosity, and particle size.

The company has also developed a fully automated chromatographic monitoring system known as PL-PMC. "The system removes discrete samples from a reactor and analyzes them by gel-permeation chromatography," noted Neil Hall, Polymer Laboratories chemical engineering manager. "The PL-PMC system allows fully automated ACOMP and chromatographic monitoring to be carried out either alone or in combination."

Meanwhile, Modcon Systems, based in Akko, Israel, claimed a breakthrough with its near-infrared (NIR) process analyzer Beacon 2000-II, which can connect up to 15 process stream sensors. "The system can be deployed anywhere in the plant and connects via telecommunications fiber optics to a central equipment control room," Modcon General Manager Gregory Shahnovsky told C&EN.

Beacon 2000-II has been successfully installed in refinery, pipeline, and petrochemical applications, according to Modcon. The system can measure properties such as flash point, viscosity, vapor pressure, and total aromatics.

Modcon also markets a series of analyzers that use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology to measure the chemical properties of multiple process fluid components directly in a process stream. Known as Qualion NMR analyzers, the systems are used for process optimization and control in oil refineries. They can be used, for example, to continuously characterize feedstocks for fluid catalytic cracking units.

LOOK AT THIS
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Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
VEGA's Birgit Wolber displays radar sensor for measuring bulk solid levels in a vessel.
Credit: PHOTO BY MICHAEL FREEMANTLE
VEGA's Birgit Wolber displays radar sensor for measuring bulk solid levels in a vessel.

In the same exhibition, VEGA Grieshaber, a company in Schiltach, Germany, that specializes in measurement technology, displayed its VEGAPULS 68 radar sensor for measuring the levels of bulk solids in a vessel. An antenna system on the sensor sends extremely short microwave pulses to the solid that are reflected back from the solid's surface and received again by the antenna system. The time from emission to reception of the signals is proportional to the level in the vessel.

The sensor can process signals up to a thousandth of those processed by conventional radar instruments and is unaffected by ambient conditions such as the presence of dust and temperature and pressure fluctuations. It can be used for measuring the levels of a wide variety of bulk solids including coal, coke, ceramic powders, cement, cereals, sand, gravel, and stones.

Ademics Sensor Technology, based in Magdeburg, Germany, displayed its metraKon 300 sensor, which also relies on the use of microwaves. "The sensor is the world's first on-line and in-line concentration measurement system that is based on the determination of microwave resonance frequency," said Ademics Business Manager Klaas Dannen. "It was launched in October 2005 and can be used for many liquids."

To measure concentration, a microwave signal is guided through the sensor head through which the liquid flows. The signal produces a resonance at a frequency that varies with the dielectric constant and therefore the concentration of the fluid. The concentration resolution, which can be as low as 10 ppm, depends on the electromagnetic properties of the materials in the liquid. The sensor is currently being used in the food and beverage industry and in chemical industry applications.

The relatively new field of automatic on-line process analysis and control promises to be exciting over the next few years, according to the ACHEMA trend report. "On-line process analytics now offers opportunities for process optimization that no one could envisage just a short time ago," it notes. "It is now possible to determine the exact composition of intermediates and finished products, whereas in the past it was only possible to capture surrogate parameters on-line. This provides an excellent basis for substantial process improvement."

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