HEL is well into the UK conference season now...

So far we have been to the Continuous Flow Technology in Industry conference where one of our staff members, Andrew Coleman,  gave a formal presentation on  our FlowCAT technology.  This generated a lot of interest as it was the only solution presented capable of scaling up liquid / gas reactions especially in trickle-bed mode but not limited to this. The versatility of FlowCAT is another major attraction,  being useful for not only hydrogenations but also for example carbonylations and oxidations under flow, as well as liquid-liquid reactions and slower chemistries that require long lengths of tubing.  The conference showed a real maturing of the flow chemistry sector with some of the more fantastical ideas that initially appeared with the technology such as numbering up being widely rejected.  There was a lot of interesting work presented at the conference and these presentations can be downloaded from the RSC website http://www.rscspecialitychemicals.org.uk/previous-conferences/continuous-flow-technology-in-industry/ . We would also like to thank the organisers Ruth and Bruce for making it such an excellent and well run conference.

Last week we attended the SCI Synthesis with Cheaper Metals conference.  This was a really good time where we caught up with a lot of customers and the chemistry presented in the lectures was truly brilliant.

Next week is a busy one with first of all “Advances in Synthesis and Medicinal Chemistry” in Welwyn where we will be showing a range of synthesis equipment closely followed by a quick drive North to “Batteries & Fuel Cells Seminar” in Stoke where we will presenting our solutions for battery calorimetry.

Please view www.helgroup.com/events for further information on where we will be exhibiting in the future. Also, we are now on Pinterest! Please follow us at : http://pinterest.com/helgroup/

HEL attends the NC3 exhibition in Netherlands

At the recent Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Conference in Holland on 5th of March, HEL showcased their systems for Hydrogenation and Catalysis. The continuous flow reactor platform, the FlowCAT received a great deal of interest and was seen as a valuable tool in continuing the development of Flow chemistry processes. With several systems already installed the conference also underlined the fact that the trend towards flow chemistry shows no signs of slowing. The FlowCAT was universally acknowledged as being an extremely flexible and easy to use solution for the optimisation of many high pressure reactions.

HEL also exhibited the High Pressure ChemSCAN which is already established as the market leader for heterogenous and homogenous catalytic screening and rapid development of high pressure reactions. Scientists interested in a complete, dedicated system were enthusiastic about the range of experiments that could be performed using this technology. With large temperature, pressure and volume ranges and unsurpassed mixing capability the High Pressure Chemscan offers a powerful and versatile development tool.

To round off, HEL also showed some very simple high pressure screening tools. The CAT units received a great deal of interest from smaller laboratories and academic attendees. This low cost, simple to use high pressure reaction screening autoclave is widely used in many laboratories.

HEL’s range of Chemical Reactors and Thermal Hazard Testing capability

Enerrgy, batteries and safety, all relate to HEL's range of chemical reactors and thermal hazard testing capability, which at the moment are undergoing rapid development as governments and industry respond to global warming. A lot of research into bio-fuels, especially using non-food items as the source, involves high pressure chemistry and catalysis which fit perfectly with HEL’s flowCAT and HP Chemcan systems for performing hydrogenation, oxidation and carbonylation reactions (among others). HEL’s unique position arises from the ability to design compact, “analytical-looking” instruments even though complex high pressure and temperature operations are involved yet operability is rendered simple and fast.

The other side of the energy equation is to look ahead to renewable sources which will then require the use of batteries for storage and transportation applications. Battery technology has a long way to go but even the current favourite which is based around Li-ion chemistry poses huge fire/explosion risks unless handled correctly. This leads to HEL’s position as the leading provider of the widest range of calorimetry tools to enable understanding of the chemistry (using typically SIMULAR reaction calorimeter), direct simulation of the thermal runaway risk (with “ARC” type adiabatic calorimeters such as the Battery Testing Calorimeter, BTC) and design of suitable thermal management systems to prevent battery explosive runaway (with the isothermal version of the BTC which directly provides the information for a BMS).

The last of these, iso-BTC, was launched only recently and has huge potentially for providing the heat load that battery thermal management systems must cope with, in order to prevent thermal runaway and explosion. The principle involved here is similar to that used by HEL for years in their reaction calorimeters and the challenge is to translate this to batteries and packs which can be cylindrical, pouch and prismatic in shape and widely different sizes.

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.

Flow Technology Expo at Pfizer Groton

HEL Inc will be displaying the unique FlowCAT reactor system at Pfizer's Flow Expo, Groton, CT, on Tuesday 22nd March.

FlowCAT is flexible and cost effective

Exhibition at this show is the culmination of a collaborative effort between Pfizer and HEL, Inc. on developing and improving the continuous flow high pressure system from HEL. The FlowCAT system is proven to be a cost effective production system in the scale-up from grams towards kilo volume from a flexible, lab-sized unit. The tube reactor can be easily switched, allowing hydrogenation reactions to occur in greater volumes (up to 4 fold increase) with only a minor change in hardware. All parameters and changes are programmable and monitored by the systems WinISO software, making scale-up much easier - and faster -  for chemical engineers.

Read articles and application notes

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

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...