Rubotherm Blog

5th International Freiberg Conference on Gasification Technology – IFC 2012

• The Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg invites to the 5th International Freiberg Conference on gasification technologies. The conference will be held from 21 - 24 May 2012 at the Penta hotel in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany.
  http://www.gasification-freiberg.org/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-16

ACHEMA 2012

• From 18-22 June 2012 the International Exhibition-Congress on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology (ACHEMA) takes place in Frankfurt (Germany).(www.achema.de)
  Rubotherm GmbH will show new products such as a new Nano-Magnetic Suspension Balance and a new quick testing device for porous materials.
  Besides this a new volumetric high pressure sorption instrument will be presented.
  You are warmly invited to visit our booth (Hall 4.1, booth A55). If you are interested in a free ticket, please call us, we have a limited number available.

  
  

PBAST conference in Taiwan

• The Pacific Basin Conference on Adsorption Science and Technology is an important opportunity for academics, researchers and industrialists working on adsorption-related area, particularly from the Asia Pacific region, to interact, exchange ideas and discuss possible collaborations. The aim is to bring the participants up to date with the latest technological trends and to motivate students by the chance of meeting the leading scientists. Rubotherm joins this conference on a pavillion-booth together with our Partner BEL-Japan.

  www.pbast6.tw

Rubotherm on the ISSF conference in San Francisco

• The ISSF 2012 is a global conference that brings together an international group of researchers, practitioners, and industrialists who will contribute cutting-edge presentations on emerging applications and processes. The focus of this meeting is to highlight the discovery, development, and production aspects inherent with a wide range of technologies that utilize the unique capabilities of supercritical fluid solvents. This three-day Symposium is structured with parallel sessions packed with plenary, keynote, and contributed talks as well as poster sessions.
  www.issf2012.com

45th Annual Meeting of German Catalyst Researchers, 14 - 16 March 2012

• The Annual Meeting of German Catalyst Researchers in Weimar is the most important national platform to present scientific research in catalysis and to discuss with experts and colleagues from academia and industry. To get an overview of current trends and scientific development the conference is the ideal place. In addition to this, two weeks later, a workshop will take place at Rubotherm that deals with the practical application of analytical methods in the field of ​​chemisorption. For more information, you can ask at our booth or visit our website under: (... / Service / catalyst characterization / ...).
  For more information about the conference see: http://www.processnet.org/katalytiker2012
  

24th German Zeolite Conference

• The 24th German Zeolite Conference takes place together with the annual meeting of the section on adsorption from 7th to 9th March 2012 at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg. It is organized by the chemical institute of the university in cooperation with the two ProcessNet  groups on zeolites and adsorption. Rubotherm shows the latest developments and is also represented in the adsorption section.
  http://www.processnet.org/dzt24
  

Practical seminar for catalyst characterization

• from March 29th to 30th a seminar about catalyst characterization will be organized by ACE (cooperation between Rubotherm and RuboKat in the field of catalyst testing) with the focus on temperature-programmed methods.  It takes place in Bochum at the Department of Chemical Engineering (Prof. Dr. Muhler).
  More information and registration forms are available at Rubotherm, or under  http://www.ac-experts.de/.
  

Full operational readiness of the laboratory at Rubotherm

• After moving the company in late November the lab has returned to full operational readiness. Now customers can send samples again to evaluate a measuring-method or just for contact analysis.

New vapour pressure balance from Rubotherm

• The vapour pressure is an important characteristic property of chemicals. For pure substances it depends only on temperature. It has to be determined for any new substance which should be placed on the market according to the European REACH regulation [EUR06]. In the OECD Guideline for the Testing of Chemicals different methods for measuring vapour pressure are proposed which can be applied in different vapour pressure ranges [OEC06]. The effusion method with a Knudsen cell covers a wide range of vapour pressures and provides comparable accurate data amongst the different measuring methods. This method is applied in an improved way using a magnetic suspension balance instrument. This setup allows highly accurate recording of the weight change of the Knudsen cell under ultra-high vacuum conditions. Additionally the special design of the instrument enables the reliable temperature control of the Knudsen cell in a wide temperature range. The new instrument design combines a high flexibility for performing vapour pressure measurements with different test substances (liquid or solid) in a wide vapour pressure range, ease of operation, and high reproducibility and accuracy.

   

  

Rubotherm at the AIChE Annual Meeting 2011 in Minneapolis, USA

• 
  
  Date: October 16-21, 2011

  
  
  Location: Minneapolis
  
  Convention Center

  
  
  The AIChE Annual Meeting is the premier educational forum for chemical engineers interested in innovation and professional growth. A wide range of subjects relevant to latest research and newest technologies in emerging growth areas will be covered.

  
  
  www.aiche.org

  
  
  
  
  

infraSORB New instrument for quicktest of porous materials

• Porous materials are used for different applications in the chemical industry as well as in many other products of daily life. The quality of the materials is analyzed by so called sorption instruments that record an adsorption isotherm during which the sample is charged with gas or vapour until saturation. The uptake capacity, the specific surface and the porosity of the material are obtained through this measurement principle, but these conventional methods take a lot of time to measure, from several hours up to a couple of days.
  Now Rubotherm has developed a new quicktest instrument that can measure the uptake capacity of up to twelve porous materials in just one measurement taking a maximum time of five minutes. A sample gas is passed through the samples adsorbing on the surface and the pores of the material. The emerging adsorption heat is measured indicating the adsorbed gas amount and accordingly the capacity of the samples. This new instrument was specifically designed for customers with a high throughput of samples who want to select their samples by high and low uptake capacity for an indication of the surface area and porosity but in a short period of time. After this screening the samples with the highest capacity can be measured using further instruments with higher resolution to get more details about their characteristics.
  The infraSORB was developed by Rubotherm in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institut für Werkstoff und Strahltechnik. For more information please visit the website of Rubotherm ( www.rubotherm.de ).

BELMass – New mass spectromer from company BEL

• Our partner BEL Japan, Inc. has launched a new mass spectrometer in a compact design to market. It can be connected directly to products of BEL, but can also be used as a stand-alone solution. The bench-top instrument operates in the mass range 1-200 amu and is suitable for qualitative and quantitative gas analysis.
  
  
  
  More information can be found on our website under "New Products".

Gas adsorption and structure analysis with XRD

• Our Partner BEL has developed a combined system to perform gas adsorption and XRD measurement.
  During adsorption measurement the pore structure in some materials changes, for example in PCP (Porous Coordination Polymers) and MOF (Metal Organic Frameworks).
  To measure and evaluate this process BEL has combined their BELSORP-max sorption instrument with an X-Ray diffraction analyzer.
  Below you can find some interesting pictures of the system and some measurement diagrams.
  
  
  

ACE Catalyst Research

• In the field of catalyst research, Rubotherm works closely together with the company RuboKat in Bochum and the local University. RuboKat is a well-known consultant company in the field of catalyst research. The new cooperation between RuboKat, the University of Bochum and Rubotherm is called ACE (Applied Catalysis Experts).
  The main goal of ACE is to help researchers to understand the mechanisms of catalysis and to develop methods for characterization. This includes the characterization of standard-catalysts but also the evaluation of specialized catalyst systems. ACE can be found at www.ac-experts.de, or under Service/Catalyst characterization on this website.
  

Rubotherm on the 22nd North American Catalysis Society Meeting

• June 5-10, 2011
  Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI
  The 22nd biannual North American Meeting of the North American Catalysis Society will be hosted by the Michigan Catalysis Society in Detroit, MI on June 5-10, 2011.  With the theme "Driving Catalysis Innovation" and with plenary lectures (including the Houdry, Emmett, and Boudart Award lectures), more than 20 renowned keynote presentations, parallel oral sessions and poster sessions this conference is shaping up to be one you won't want to miss!
  
  
  
  

COPS 9 - 9th International Symposium on the Characterisation of Porous Solids

• 05.06.2011 - 08.06.2011, Dresden/Germany
  
  Porous materials have developed enormous impact in catalysis, separation, and life science applications. Characterisation of such solids is a key element to design porous materials for specific news. The aim of the conference is to bring experts from academia and industry together in order to discuss latest developments in characterisation methods, materials, and applications.
  Proceedings for this conference (selected papers) will be published in a special issue for Mic-roporous and Mesoporous Materials: "Characterisation of Porous Solids IX". A copy of the proceedings is part of the conference fee of each regular participant. The proceedings will be published and shipped to the participants some months after the conference.
  DECHEMA Society for Chemical Technology and Biotechnology and the Technical University of Dresden cordially invite you on behalf of the Scientific Committee to participate in the 9th International Symposium on the Characterisation of Porous Solids.
  
  Conference Office:
  DECHEMA e.V.
  Andrea Köhl
  Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25
  60486 Frankfurt am Main
  Tel: +49 / 69 / 7564 235
  Fax: +49 / 69 / 7564 235
  cops@dechema.de
  
  

New findings on the developments of the earthquake disaster

• The earthquake disaster on 11 March 2011 was an event of the century not only for Japan. With a magnitude of Mw = 8.9, it was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded worldwide. Particularly interesting is that here, two days before, a strong foreshock with a magnitude Mw = 7.2 took place almost exactly at the breaking point of the tsunami-earthquake. The geophysicist Joachim Saul from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (Helmholtz Association) created an animation which shows the sequence of quakes since March 9.
  
  http://www.helmholtz.de/en/news/press_and_news

DynTHERM – TGA for coal- and biomass gasification processes

• Rubotherm’s DynTHERM line of TGA instruments can measure under conditions where all other instruments fail. Especially for applications at high temperatures and pressures, such as coal and biomass gasification the DynTHERM is the right choice.
  
  
  
  TG measurements using corrosive or toxic atmospheres, in vapour and/or under high pressure conditions. As all other Rubotherm gravimetric instruments also our thermogravimetric analysers are equipped with the unique magnetic suspension balance.
  The DynTHERM  analysers are applied for TG measurements between vacuum and maximum pressure of 40 bars. Depending on the pressure temperatures up to 1550°C can be realized. Measurements with corrosive gases and vapour atmospheres can be carried out without the need of balance purge gas. The reactor is closed and only the controlled reaction gas atmosphere is in contact with the sample. This cold wall reactor design ensures that the reaction atmosphere is only in contact with corrosion resistant ceramic materials in the high temperature zone of the reactor
  The analysers may equipped with our sophisticated gas &vapour dosing and mixing devices (FlexiDOSE), a pressure controller and gas sampling devices for MS & GC.
  
  Main applications of the DynTHERM LP instruments are:
  -high temperature corrosion studies (e. g. metal dusting)
  -coal and biomass gasification
  -catalyst testing (e. g. sulphidation)
  -CVD coating
  
  DynTHERM
  

Large power plant in USA with coal gasification

• Siemens is pressing ahead with research into the clean combustion of coal. The company is conducting an engineering study for an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant (IGCC) on behalf of US power developer Summit Texas Clean Energy LLC.
  
  
  
  With this process the Texas Clean Energy Project (TECP) will capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) contained in the coal gas and aims in this way to achieve the highest CO2 separation values in the world.
  Siemens is pressing ahead with research into the clean combustion of coal. The company is conducting an engineering study for an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant (IGCC) on behalf of US power developer Summit Texas Clean Energy LLC. With this process the Texas Clean Energy Project (TECP) will capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) contained in the coal gas and aims in this way to achieve the highest CO2 separation values in the world. The project extends the development of IGCC to conventionally sized power plants since with an output of 400 megawatts of electric power TECP will deliver as much energy as a standard combined cycle power plant. The object of the study is to define the technical outline conditions for the use of IGCC in power plants of this size and to provide the key data for calculating costs.
  Gasification is an important and environment-friendly means of processing fuels that release a lot of CO2 because of their low calorific value. Lignite in particular, but also low quality coal can deliver “clean” electricity by means of IGCC. In this process the coal is not fired directly, but is first converted into combustible raw gas in a gasifier. The gas contains predominantly hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The carbon dioxide is converted into CO2 and separated. What remains is a hydrogen-rich gas known as syngas that is burnt in a turbine to produce electricity. Syngas can, however, also be processed for oth

Earth quake and tsunami in Japan

• Our deepest sympathy goes to Japan at the moment. The local disaster is our daily companion. Rubotherms main partner is the Japanese company BEL-Japan-Inc. in Osaka. BEL manufactures and sells sorption instruments worldwide and Rubotherm is responsible for the German market. In spite of the desaster BEL’s production and all business activities are running further because they produce their products exclusively in Osaka. However, BEL also maintains a sales subsidiary in Tokyo, which is affected by the events. But the office in Tokio, even under these circumstances, is open.
  
  
  
  BEL-JAPAN
  

RUBOTHERM buys new building

• Rubotherm continues to grow. Due to the good business and the growing demand for production and office space Rubotherm has acquired a larger building. It is located about one kilometer from the current production site. The move is planned in the second half of the year.