18 Analytical Instrumentation
Fast GC: A Practical Guide for Increasing Sample Troughput, Without Sacrificing Quality
Supelco (USA) offers a guide to the advantages of using Fast GC. Analytical GC chemists are continually striving to reduce analysis times, because shorter analysis times increase sample throughput, which translates to the completion of more samples per shift. However, any decrease in analysis time must not diminish the necessities – to adequately resolve peaks of interest and to identify specific elution patterns. Applying the principles of Fast GC to any application can achieve both of these objectives.
Fast GC involves manipulating a number of column and instrument parameters to provide faster analysis times while maintaining resolution. You can often achieve analysis times that are 3-10 times faster than conventional GC; typically, without adding capital equipment. In addition, by using Fast GC you can decrease costs by using fewer analysts and/or instruments; also, increase revenue as you analyse more samples within a given period. Fast GC helps you achieve faster method development, and you can apply the technique to any application with no sacrifice in quality.
Reader Reply Card No 64
Fast Gasoline Characterisation Methodology Application Note Available for Download
Bruker’s Chemical and Applied Markets division (USA) has made available a new Application Note focusing on a fast PIONA methodology for hydrocarbon characterisation, which is now available online. The Application Notes describe how the methodology cuts down the analysis time for high resolution gas chromatography (HRGC) of gasoline, from 115 minutes to just 70 minutes.
The petrochemical industry has demanded powerful separation capabilities for many years. Because of the complex composition of hydrocarbon mixtures, in particular spark-ignition fuels, analysis of such samples can be long. Bruker’s PIONA+ Analyser in O-PONA mode now completes this same analysis of gasolines, according to ASTM D-6839, in only 70 minutes. The architecture of the PIONA+ Analyser is such that it enables the various columns and traps to be optimised for elution sequence and time. By increasing the heating rate of the Molsieve 13x column the analysis time is dramatically reduced by cutting 20 minutes off the separation of saturates and olefin's time. A further reduction in time is achieved as the BR-1 column has sufficient resolution to separate toluene and benzene; this means additional separation on a PoraPak column is not needed.
Hans van den Heuvel, Product Marketing Manager for petrochemicals at Bruker CAM commented “The PIONA+ Analyser is configured for separation up to C11 and to report C12 and higher as >200°. In the gasoline O-PONA mode separation up to C10 is required and C11 and higher is reported as >185°C. It can optimise analysis per carbon group without any interference to the other groups as well as refining the sequence as a whole. We have managed to cut the analysis time significantly without sacrificing any other aspects of the process such as the separation or quantification”. Van den Heuvel went on to explain “We are confident that the fast methodology available for Bruker’s PIONA+ will begin to revolutionise the industry, in particular the spark-ignition fuel sector. Now, the PIONA+ Analyser lets you take better control of a much larger proportion of the process”.
Reader Reply Card No 65
Intelligent and Portable Fuel Analysis
Grabner Instruments (Austria), a subsidiary of AMETEK, Inc. has introduced a new portable and highly versatile FTIR spectrometer for the fully automatic measurement of gasoline, diesel and biofuel blends. The MINISCAN IRXpert is the first completely portable FTIR fuel analyser that combines superior scanning range and resolution with the advantages of mid-IR and near-IR spectroscopy for highest measurement accuracy. More than 40 fuel parameters are automatically analysed. Designed as an intelligent, self-learning analyser that allows an unlimited number of new fuel parameters to be analysed at the push of a button.
In the 1990s, Dr. Werner Grabner, founder of Vienna-based Grabner Instruments developed the IROX, the first portable FTIR spectrometer to measure the concentration of oxygenates in gasoline by mid-IR. With 20 years of expertise and feedback from customers around the world, the new MINISCAN IRXpert reflects a paradigm shift to a new level of quality in fuel analysis. The instrument houses an unique dual-cell design spectrometer that offers an extended wavelength range from mid-IR to near-IR, superior resolution and the ability to analyse multiple fuels with a single instrument. Maximum measurement stability is guaranteed through a temperature-controlled measuring cell and density meter. Unmatched accuracy is ensured through the combination of information from the mid-IR and the near-IR spectrum. Instead of a few selected areas, the MINISCAN IRXpert analyses the full spectrum and more than 12,000 data points.
The MINISCAN IRXpert comes fully configured with the ability to test more than 40 important parameters for both laboratory-tested and field-tested fuels. Oxygenates, aromatics, benzene, octane boosters and cetane improvers, and biodiesel content are measured with unprecedented precision. A number of key fuel properties, such as octane and cetane number, vapour pressure and distillation properties are accurately predicted, by utilising a worldwide sample database and by combining the information from the mid-IR and near-IR spectrum range derived from a high-resolution scan.
With the worldwide problem of fuel adulteration, the MINISCAN IRXpert was designed from the beginning with flexibility in mind. An unlimited number of new fuel parameters and samples may be added to the analyser. Advanced chemometrics automatically create an optimum model for these new parameters. With only a few clicks newly measured samples can be added to the database and a new model created.
MINISCAN IRXpert is genuinely easy to operate. Menu Navigation is done on a robust 8.4” full-colour touch screen. The button size has been optimised for operating the analyser with fingers. Spectra can be analysed, zoomed and compared directly on a high-resolution screen. All sample spectra are stored in the instrument database for convenient review. The instrument features WORKS – Worldwide Online Remote Control and Services – and offers LIMS data transfer via Ethernet and USB as well.
Reader Reply Card No 66 Annual Buyers’ Guide 2013 •
www.petro-online.com Reader Reply Card No 67
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104
