HEL exhibits at the FlowHET Conference in Florida

Picture of our stand at the conference

HEL recently exhibited at the FlowHET Conference in Florida for the first time. This is a wide ranging conference with homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis presentations with applications that included hydrogenations in the pharmaceutical industry and a well as petrochemical and refining process.

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. The conference also underlined the fact that the trend towards flow chemistry shows no signs of slowing. The FlowCAT was acknowledged as being an extremely flexible and easy to use solution compared to it’s competitors for the optimization of many high pressure reactions. It has a very small footprint and has the compactness and ease-of-use normally associated with analytical devices which appeals enormously to bench chemists and chemical engineers alike. Data has been shown to scale very easily and reliably due to the care in design and attention to detail. This supplements HEL’s more traditional catalysis platforms such as HP Chemscan, CAT blocks and the high pressure automate and polyblock systems.

For further information on our flow chemistry reactor, FlowCAT, please click here

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 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

Parallel catalyst and hydrogenation platform - UPDATED!!!

Our trusted HP ChemSCAN, designed for hydrogenation and catalyst screening - has been updated and upgraded, and now boasts the following features and benefits:

- Independent pressure measurement in each vessel
- Individual pressure control, allowing tests at different pressure
- On-line gas consumption calculation and display, in each reactor
- Individual temperature control for each vessel
- A range/difference of over 100°C between the reactors
- Ability to perform reactions down to -60°C

Still offering excellent mixing, but now the new flexible HPCS platform can also be used with different size reactors. Whilst the standard remains 16ml for each vessel with a working volume down to 3ml, it is now possible to replace or interchange those with 75 ml and 120 ml reactors.

visit our website for more information, read recent Press Release

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...