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.

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.

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

Watch a short video about HEL's HP ChemSCAN

This short video (just over 2 minutes) describing hydrogenation and catalyst screening with HEL's HP ChemSCAN is intended to give a very quick overview of this innovative, robust product. Further details available on HEL's website.

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