Wednesday, November 09, 2005
ASPeCT Magnet Technologies Ltd
A company that has recently been developing cutting edge permanent magnet systems is ASPeCT Magnet Technologies who are developing MRI and NMR magnets for industrial applications. The magnets are fully shielded permanent magnets of varying bore size that enable fully shimmed 60 MHz process FT-NMR systems as well as industrial and medical MRI. Our interest is obviously in their NMR magnets but there also possibilities developing to use gradient shimming to allow spatially specific high resolution spectra to be obtained from objects being imaged….eg. water/sugar NMR spectra obtained from citrus fruits. The ASPeCT website contains 2 presentations of the various technologies under development.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Tailor-Made Hydrocarbons
With the US public suddenly awakening to the fact that they have been squandering a finite natural resource with the current SUV craze, there is a huge amount of interest being generated in increase refining capacity, renewable sources of energy and the developoment of a crude oil substitute. With energy prices going to remain the same or increase, I think that Gasification Technology in combination with Fischer Tropsch synthesis will bail us out from the Mad Max scenario of 50 years hence.
Gasification can take many input feeds such as municipal waste, sewage, coal, plastics, bitumen, heavy oil, waste oils, biomass, etc. These are gasified to SynGas (H2/CO) which initially contains many impurities (metals, sulfur, oxides, chlorine etc) some impurities for a refractory (glass) that is removed from the gasifier and this refractory can be readily disposed as it encapsulates a lot of the “nasties”. The gaseous component of the product can be treated to yield pure syngas which can then be passed over Fischer Tropsch (FT) catalyst. The FT process is a gas-to-liquids process that recombines the elements present in the gas into hydrocarbons. The produced hydrocarbons can then be tailor made for the application (fuels, lubes, monomers) by cracking and/or hydroisomerization. FT is also a valuable technology as the large oil companies see it as a technology to develop their stranded gas deposits into a more readily transportable material so that these assets can be monetized.
From waste we will derive the energy required for the future. Shell, Exxon, British Petroleum, Syntroleum, and Sasol-Chevron are just a few of the companies working on GTL technology. Rentech Inc are another company working in collaboration with Texaco and Sasol (now Sasol-Chevron). Here is their statement regarding FT….GTLSite.pdf
13C NMR is the perfect way to monitor the detailed molecular chemistry of the products made by GTL processes. On-line 1H NMR or at line 13C would allow chemistry to be controlled on a timescale of minutes.
The information out there is vast from organizations such as Alaska Natural Gas Transportation and their ideas for the BP project at Nikiski. Modular designs of various process components will lead to small plants and improved product quality.
An excellent summary of the technology is found at Chemlink, Exxon, Sasol, DOE, Eltron Research, Foster Wheeler, SRI Consulting, Statoil, G-T-L, and Thailand.
GTL technology development will have fall out effects in the natural gas market – an excellent economics artive of LNG and GTL is found at EnergyPulse. A Congressional Report also investigates the GTL and natural gas markets. A great source of centralized energy news is EnergyBulletin.net which harvests many articles from around the world dealing with “peak oil” reporting. The Energy Blog is another excellent source of Energy Related Material.
The next big push will be to develop the oils shale, heavy oil and tar sand deposits that are found in Alberta, Utah, and the Orinoco Basin to name a few. These are the only deposits that can yield enough hydrocarbon for the GTL Technologies and meet energy needs for the foreseeable future. Strategically the development of these heavy resources to marketable fuels would remove the US dependence on imported oil.
Gasification can take many input feeds such as municipal waste, sewage, coal, plastics, bitumen, heavy oil, waste oils, biomass, etc. These are gasified to SynGas (H2/CO) which initially contains many impurities (metals, sulfur, oxides, chlorine etc) some impurities for a refractory (glass) that is removed from the gasifier and this refractory can be readily disposed as it encapsulates a lot of the “nasties”. The gaseous component of the product can be treated to yield pure syngas which can then be passed over Fischer Tropsch (FT) catalyst. The FT process is a gas-to-liquids process that recombines the elements present in the gas into hydrocarbons. The produced hydrocarbons can then be tailor made for the application (fuels, lubes, monomers) by cracking and/or hydroisomerization. FT is also a valuable technology as the large oil companies see it as a technology to develop their stranded gas deposits into a more readily transportable material so that these assets can be monetized.
From waste we will derive the energy required for the future. Shell, Exxon, British Petroleum, Syntroleum, and Sasol-Chevron are just a few of the companies working on GTL technology. Rentech Inc are another company working in collaboration with Texaco and Sasol (now Sasol-Chevron). Here is their statement regarding FT….GTLSite.pdf
13C NMR is the perfect way to monitor the detailed molecular chemistry of the products made by GTL processes. On-line 1H NMR or at line 13C would allow chemistry to be controlled on a timescale of minutes.
The information out there is vast from organizations such as Alaska Natural Gas Transportation and their ideas for the BP project at Nikiski. Modular designs of various process components will lead to small plants and improved product quality.
An excellent summary of the technology is found at Chemlink, Exxon, Sasol, DOE, Eltron Research, Foster Wheeler, SRI Consulting, Statoil, G-T-L, and Thailand.
GTL technology development will have fall out effects in the natural gas market – an excellent economics artive of LNG and GTL is found at EnergyPulse. A Congressional Report also investigates the GTL and natural gas markets. A great source of centralized energy news is EnergyBulletin.net which harvests many articles from around the world dealing with “peak oil” reporting. The Energy Blog is another excellent source of Energy Related Material.
The next big push will be to develop the oils shale, heavy oil and tar sand deposits that are found in Alberta, Utah, and the Orinoco Basin to name a few. These are the only deposits that can yield enough hydrocarbon for the GTL Technologies and meet energy needs for the foreseeable future. Strategically the development of these heavy resources to marketable fuels would remove the US dependence on imported oil.
Mid-Hudson ACS - November Meeting
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society and the Chemistry Department of Vassar College Announce:
“Morphology Of Effect Materials”
by Dr. Geoff Johnson, Engelhard Corporation,
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Vassar College , Mudd Chemistry Building, 3rd Floor – Science Visualization (Sci Vis) Lab
Contact Joseph Tanski (Vassar) at 845-437-7503 or by e-mail at jotanski@vassar.edu.
About the lecture: Classic pearlescent pigments have evolved far beyond the biologically derived mother-of-pearl that originally inspired them. The class of synthetics that includes pearlescent pigments is now called “effect materials.” This renaming emphasizes that appearance is the sum of many sensory effects, not just color. The most robust effect materials are composed of thin layers of metal oxides coated onto inorganic substrates. The layer structure determines color effects, but the morphology of the substrate plays a significant role in the overall effect. There is also a class of effect materials composed of bismuth oxychloride, in which the morphology of the BiOCl crystal is solely responsible for the observed effects.
About the speaker: Dr. Johnson is originally from South West England, near Bath . He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK and his MS in Chemistry from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier , France . He earned a PhD in Inorganic Materials Chemistry with Professor Mark Weller at the University of Southampton, UK. Dr. Johnson’s postdoctoral experience includes work in zeolite chemistry with Professor John Parise at SUNY Stony Brook and chemical catalysis at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with Fabio Ribeiro. He joined Engelhard in 2001 as a Research Chemist at the Corporate R&D facility in Iselin , New Jersey . In June 2004, he joined Engelhard’s Appearance and Performance Technology facility in Ossining , New York as a Senior Scientist. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Materials Research Society, and International Zeolite Association.
Directions to Vassar College : Vassar College is located at 124 Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie , NY . Refer to the following link for driving directions and campus map: http://www.vassar.edu/directions. Enter the main entrance of the campus on Raymond Avenue .
“Morphology Of Effect Materials”
by Dr. Geoff Johnson, Engelhard Corporation,
Wednesday, November 9, 2005 Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Vassar College , Mudd Chemistry Building, 3rd Floor – Science Visualization (Sci Vis) Lab
Contact Joseph Tanski (Vassar) at 845-437-7503 or by e-mail at jotanski@vassar.edu.
About the lecture: Classic pearlescent pigments have evolved far beyond the biologically derived mother-of-pearl that originally inspired them. The class of synthetics that includes pearlescent pigments is now called “effect materials.” This renaming emphasizes that appearance is the sum of many sensory effects, not just color. The most robust effect materials are composed of thin layers of metal oxides coated onto inorganic substrates. The layer structure determines color effects, but the morphology of the substrate plays a significant role in the overall effect. There is also a class of effect materials composed of bismuth oxychloride, in which the morphology of the BiOCl crystal is solely responsible for the observed effects.
About the speaker: Dr. Johnson is originally from South West England, near Bath . He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, UK and his MS in Chemistry from the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Montpellier , France . He earned a PhD in Inorganic Materials Chemistry with Professor Mark Weller at the University of Southampton, UK. Dr. Johnson’s postdoctoral experience includes work in zeolite chemistry with Professor John Parise at SUNY Stony Brook and chemical catalysis at Worcester Polytechnic Institute with Fabio Ribeiro. He joined Engelhard in 2001 as a Research Chemist at the Corporate R&D facility in Iselin , New Jersey . In June 2004, he joined Engelhard’s Appearance and Performance Technology facility in Ossining , New York as a Senior Scientist. Dr. Johnson is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, American Chemical Society, Materials Research Society, and International Zeolite Association.
Directions to Vassar College : Vassar College is located at 124 Raymond Avenue in Poughkeepsie , NY . Refer to the following link for driving directions and campus map: http://www.vassar.edu/directions. Enter the main entrance of the campus on Raymond Avenue .
Mid-Hudson ACS - New Website and Blog
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society has a new website at http://www.midhudsonacs.org and a new blog at http://www.midhudsonacs.org/Blog
Process TD-NMR of Polyolefins
Progression Inc (formerly Auburn and then Oxford Instruments) have been placing low field time-domain (TD) NMR spectrometers in the field for 15+ years. The main arena for their on-line analysis is polyolefins though they are now trying to extend their application base into coal and mining. They have 120+ systems in the field which is a lot considering that most NMR spectroscopists aren’t even aware of their existence. They have recently publised two application notes on TD-NMR applied to polypropylene resins and polyethylene resins. The bottom line is that most TD-NMR spectrometers can perform the analysis, however, the sample grabbing, pre-conditioning and delivery to the NMR are key.
It would be interesting to take detailed liquid-state 1H and 13C analyses, with complimentary solid-state 13C CP- and SP-MAS relaxation data in order to map the correlation between TD-NMR FID and CPMG profiles and the detailed chemistry of the samples.
It would be interesting to take detailed liquid-state 1H and 13C analyses, with complimentary solid-state 13C CP- and SP-MAS relaxation data in order to map the correlation between TD-NMR FID and CPMG profiles and the detailed chemistry of the samples.
NMR Console Purchase - Cheaper than Chips
Today I bought a Varian Unity-400 console with three channels, solids amps, gradients, magnet leg assembly, HAL box and monitor panel for $2200. In the mid 90’s that spectrometer would have cost $300,000 +. NMR equipment seems to depreciate quicker than a Pontiac. My pack rat mentality is in full swing.
We operate a Varian VXR300S for liquids analysis and a Varian UnityPlus-200 for solids and liquids analysis. Sitting in the adjacent space of our of our office I have 2 full VXR-300 consoles as board swap for my liquids system, a VXR-400, a Varian 300 MHz R2D2 magnet, two 60 MHz process NMR spectrometers, and two boxes full of acquisition control board, ADC boards, sum-to-memory boards, etc.
I question why any small company would buy a new spectrometer when you must pay through the nose and watch it depreciate at a terrific rate. Then you have to deal with the fact that you are held hostage by the spectrometer manufacturer as failed components are only available through them initially at high exchange rates, and they will not ship you a board unless you have taken their maintenance course.
If you buy 10 year old spectrometers, either third party, or from ebay and other auctions, you can support yourself for pennies on the dollar. People actually laugh when I say I support the spectrometer service aspects of my business by surfing ebay and the internet.
One great third party supplier is Triangle Analytical who install and service spectrometers and take the worry of Cryogen refills away with their Helium (and Nitrogen if you want it) fill contracts. The perception of NMR as an expensive instrument to buy or mainatain is simply not true any more.
If anyone has old NMR spectrometers, probes, magnets, or amplifiers laying around let me know…I can probably find a home for them.
We operate a Varian VXR300S for liquids analysis and a Varian UnityPlus-200 for solids and liquids analysis. Sitting in the adjacent space of our of our office I have 2 full VXR-300 consoles as board swap for my liquids system, a VXR-400, a Varian 300 MHz R2D2 magnet, two 60 MHz process NMR spectrometers, and two boxes full of acquisition control board, ADC boards, sum-to-memory boards, etc.
I question why any small company would buy a new spectrometer when you must pay through the nose and watch it depreciate at a terrific rate. Then you have to deal with the fact that you are held hostage by the spectrometer manufacturer as failed components are only available through them initially at high exchange rates, and they will not ship you a board unless you have taken their maintenance course.
If you buy 10 year old spectrometers, either third party, or from ebay and other auctions, you can support yourself for pennies on the dollar. People actually laugh when I say I support the spectrometer service aspects of my business by surfing ebay and the internet.
One great third party supplier is Triangle Analytical who install and service spectrometers and take the worry of Cryogen refills away with their Helium (and Nitrogen if you want it) fill contracts. The perception of NMR as an expensive instrument to buy or mainatain is simply not true any more.
If anyone has old NMR spectrometers, probes, magnets, or amplifiers laying around let me know…I can probably find a home for them.
Process NMR Associates, LLC
Process NMR Associates was founded in 1997 by John Edwards and Paul Giammatteo in Danbury CT. Both were Ph.D. chemists working at the Texaco Fuels and Lubricants Research Center in Beacon, New York. Paul was group leader of process analytical and organic spectroscopy and John Edwards was the NMR spectroscopist for the Texaco corporation. Between them they have over 40 years of experience in NMR, organic spectroscopy, process analytical, and petroleum/petrochemical chemistry.
Initially Process NMR Associates (PNA) concentrated on supporting the Invensys MRA product which had been formed by a JV between Invensys and the Elbit ATI NMR company. From 1997-2003 PNA was the application development and technical marketing consultants to that product. In 2003 PNA made a strategic decision to leave the relationship with Invensys and has concentrated on developing it's analytical NMR service for industry. Currently PNA serves over 100 small and large companies for their liquid and solid-state NMR needs.
Initially Process NMR Associates (PNA) concentrated on supporting the Invensys MRA product which had been formed by a JV between Invensys and the Elbit ATI NMR company. From 1997-2003 PNA was the application development and technical marketing consultants to that product. In 2003 PNA made a strategic decision to leave the relationship with Invensys and has concentrated on developing it's analytical NMR service for industry. Currently PNA serves over 100 small and large companies for their liquid and solid-state NMR needs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)