Great feedback for HEL's Conference on Flow & Batch Process Development

“Very well run conference and event”, “I enjoyed the conference very much “, “The conference was very interesting and I think I'll be back next year”, “New material which I would not have otherwise seen which was especially valuable”, “Good mix of people”, “Well organised, excellent communication”;  just some of the comments that delegates from 10 countries who joined HEL’s 12th Conference on flow and batch chemistry in Cambridge last week !!

Representatives of  different organisations including Astrazeneca, GSK, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, UCB Pharma, Sanofi-Aventis, Dr Reddy’s, BP, Johnson Matthey and Carbogen  were joined by senior academics from Universities such as Cambridge, Cranfield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Huddersfield, Leiden as well as German Fraunhofer Institute and Spanish Institut Català d'Investigació Química.

The social gathering at St Catharine’s college extended into the local pub and proved a great networking opportunity for all.  Some photos in our Picasa Album… !

Flow and batch process development focus for HEL 12th Conference

Join us at Cambridge University for a series of lectures and presentations from leading scientists.

Speakers and titles confirmed so far include :

• Introduction and Keynote Lecture , by Dr Ian R. Baxendale, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Cambridge University (UK)
• Flow Hydrogenation: Enhanced Diastereoselectivity, Purity Control, and Catalyst Activity relative to Batch operation, by Dr Joel Hawkins, Pfizer (Groton, USA)
• Development of catalytic oxidation flow process (tentative), by John Studley,Vertex Pharmaceuticals (UK)
• Pd/diphosphane-catalyzed reductive carbonylation of nitrobenzenein methanol – some surprises, by Dr T Mooibroek, Prof. E. Bouwman and Prof. E. Drent, Leiden University (Netherlands)
• Development of new oxidation catalysts (tentative), by Dr Mark J Muldoon, Queens University Belfast, (UK)
• Reactive distillation in continuous mode, by Prof Allen Wright, University of Newcastle (UK)
• Hydrogenation and other Continuous Processes in supercritical fluids, by Prof Martyn Poliakoff and Dr Richard Bourne, University of Nottingham (UK)
• Engineering aspects of batch and flow heterogeneous reactors based on performance data, by Dr Jasbir Singh, HEL Group (UK).

The conference will take place on Tuesday September 27th, and participants are invited to join us for a complementary Drinks reception and  a three course dinner at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge on Monday 26th September.  Early Bird Discount available until June 30th.  Contact  marketing@helgroup.com, or visit our website to find out more.

Lithium Mobile Power .. Boston, USA and 5th International Forum on Li-ion Battery Technology... Beijing, China (4-7 November).

By Dr Jasbir Singh

This November, I attended  a couple of different conferences involving battery technology. Each had a range of speakers talking about safety, as well as other general research topics.

Safety is seen a major obstacle to development of Li-ion technology and therefore HEL’s involvement as a major supplier of safety testing solutions was very important. At both conferences we exhibited our advanced Battery Testing Calorimeter (BTC) as it is unique in being able to provide a single solution to for both small scale testing of battery components, as well as direct simulation of larger scale battery incidents, including the “abuse” testing methods specified by various protocols. At the Beijing Forum on Li-on Batteries I made a presentation, which can be viewed here ... 

Chemistry Today's 2nd Symposium on “Continuous Flow Reactor Technology for Industrial applications” ... Paris, 2-3 October

By Dr Jasbir Singh, HEL's Managing Director

“Chemistry Today” magazine organised their second flow Chemistry symposium in Paris, following a successful launch in Madrid last year.

I was among the speakers invited to make a presentation and this gave me an opportunity to present the developments of the FlowCAT system, including performance data and examples of the use of DOE with hydrogenation reactions, carried out on a continuous flow reactor. Have a look at the presentation that  includes data recently presented by Dr Joel Hawkins of Pfizer.

The FlowCAT system has been developed by HEL with ongoing input from Pfizer, as well as from Professor Ley’s group at Cambridge University in England.  This has resulted in a more robust system than those available on the market at present, and is also suitable to those research chemists that are not experts in flow chemistry or in pressure equipment.

Several orders for FlowCAT have already been received from as far afield as China and mid-West USA.

Read more about FlowCAT:  Product page,  Articles

Thermal Stability of Batteries

By Dr Jasbir Singh

HEL were invited to make a presentation on safety testing of batteries, using adiabatic calorimetry, at the meeting of the Thermal Methods Group (TMG) of the RSC, to be held 30/31 March in Harwell, England. 

The Abstract of the talk I plan to give entitled "Thermal Stability of Batteries"  is available via this link;  it is  focused on Phi-TEC Battery Testing Calorimeter (BTC), developed especially for small and large batteries alike, based on the principles of the “ARC” calorimeter produced by Dow Chemical, back in the 1980s. The Phi-TEC is already established as the bench mark replacement for the “ARC” and is used worldwide for chemical safety testing.   

HEL Inc is growing

Another recruit to our US office is the new Account Manager for the MidAtlantic region - Dan Sacunas.

Dan brings with him over 8 years experience in the technology industry, most recently working as a Regional Account Manager in the U.S. for NXP Semiconductors. Here he was responsible for all sales, marketing, major OEM, and distribution strategies within in the Mid-Atlantic region. Prior to joining NXP, Dan worked for Philips in Global Business Partnerships, Operations, and Process Engineering functions.

With an MBA from New York University as well as a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University, Dan is off to flying start with HEL !

He currently lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with his wife Natalie, and today (Thursday May 21st ) you might bump into him at the Catalysis Club of Philadephia (CCP) Spring '09 Symposium !

HEL to exhibit at 21st NAM

Come and meet our new US Regional Manager, Barry Giordano, at the 21st North American Catalysis Conference, 7-12 June, San Francisco.

Barry is looking forward to meeting you there; a bit of background about him might help. He has a BS in Organic Chemistry (with a focus on Analytical Chemistry), and has joined us with over 20 years of business development, sales management and technical support, serving the life science sector. If you are on LinkedIn, then more information on his extensive experience is available on his LinkedIn Profile.

Our updated High Pressure ChemSCAN will be of particular interest to visitors to NAM; it is a dedicated parallel reaction system for the rapid screening of high pressure reactions and heterogeneous catalysis systems. The system has been updated recently, with improved features and benefits, using our parallel synthesis platform PolyBLOCK gives it further flexibility and modularity. More information is available on our website, or read this article.

Parallel Synthesis and other automated chemistry tools at Achema 2009

Our newly recruited German Account Manager, Dr Gesche Heiss, can be seen at Achema today and until this Friday, together with Ian Norman - HEL's European Sales Manager.

We are showing our newly designed parallel chemistry AutoMATE system there, as well as our industry leading bench scale reactor system - AutoLAB, running with the new LasenTRACK probes, for on line particle profiling.

If you are planning to visit, pop by to our stand (Hall 5.1, E42-43) and have a little play with our cool new MicroNOTE touchscreen controller - shown on the right connected to our compact PolyBLOCK system, demonstrated by Gesche at our stand -captured by Achema's photographer!

Calorimetric Techniques - Free Workshop

We are running a free workshop on May 5th in collaboration with our partners Setaram and Stazione Sperimentale per i Combustibili (SSC). The title is "Calorimetric Techniques in Process Hazard Assessment" and it will take place at the SSC Institute in San Donato Milanese, Italy.

Whilst places are FREE bear in mind that we only have a limited number available, so please book as soon as possible

Booking form and further information

It's Just Not Cricket... !

Our 9th User Conference is now behind us, and we are happy to say that everything went well....

Comments from delegates were positive, and included :
"Good overview presented with a good explanation of complex issuess"
“Useful angles on use of calorimetry both for hazards and other purposes"
“Very enjoyable event.Well organised and beneficial both in terms of networking and learning"
“Balanced mix of academic and industrial research.”

HEL User Conference 2008 photos

We are now planning the next event in 2009 - focused on High Pressure Applications - suggestions for venues, subjects etc will be welcome...

We're everywhere ...!!!

This month (September) you can see HEL's sales staff in many locations - just look at this list of conferences and events:

2-4 September
Particulate System Analysis 2008
---New Product Launch----
Stratford-upon-Avon UK

3 September
PCI Research Development & Innovation Working Group Workshop
University of Limerick, Ireland

7-9 September
British Association for Crystal Growth Conference 2008
Loughborough University, UK

8-9 September
Pharmaceutical ChemOutsourcing
NJ, USA

15-17 September
The Scale-Up of Chemical Processes
Rome, Italy

14-18 September
XIX National Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry
Verona, Italy

30 September 2008
9th HEL Hazard Conference
Trends in Calorimetry and Hazard Assesment
Lords Cricket Ground, London, UK

But the 2 highlights of this month will be Jasbir Singh's course on process safety the the Scientific Update scale-up conference in Rome and of course our very own user confenrence at the end of this month at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. We have some new products and development to present at the conference and the booking forms are still coming in... ! watch this space for some photos from the conference.

Lord's Cricket Ground and other marketing issues

Someone has to be the first to write something in this blog... so I guess it will be me, as it is my idea to start it.

What did I start this Blog for ? well, its all about HEL. About our day to day and also perhaps to improve our own internal communication by sharing our various work experiences. It will be nice to read some anecdotal entries, but also to hear about each other's work, achievements, professional problems, etc. We could get some research results and application notes published here, and let our customers comment and even post their own opinions.

So, what have I been up to ? I just spoke to one of the event organisers in the Lord's Cricket Ground, and arranged for a tour of the grounds at the end of our User Conference on September 30th. She said that there is a very good chance to be able to see both the Long Room and the Players Changing Rooms ! bookings for this event are coming in fast currently. We still have a few more places but the space is limited so hurry if you want to join.

We are also venturing into a new market - and will be exhibiting for the first time at ArabLAB 2009, January 2009 in Dubai, so I have been busy arranging this. Our website is being overhauled and you should be able to see some changes within the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can see some information on some of our new products already there, such as AutoMATE II, Phi-TEC I, and FlowCAT.

Visit again soon for more...