Calorimetry and safety studies
Gathering the necessary safety information is indispensable for the development of an industrial synthesis process. This implies the investigation of several aspects:
- thermicity of the reaction
- determination of the maximum safe temperature of the reaction
- the starting point of possible exothermic side reactions
Before scale up of any chemical process, a risk analysis should be made that carefully considers these factors and the implications they will have on the process. Often, a few simple changes in the execution of the process can make all the difference between a process that is unsafe, and one that is inherently safe
Electrochemical characterization
The electrochemistry expertise and equipment in the ELCAT group is available for third party users. We can consult on a variety of electrochemical phenomena such as corrosion, organic electrochemistry and reaction mechanisms.
Corrosion failure is a severe industrial problem which can be contained through well-considered design. Measurements of corrosion rate, coating performance and inhibitor efficiency are indispensable in this view. Linear polarization techniques as well as impedance based techniques can be applied based on customer request.
Separation processes
It is essential to gather physicochemical parameters when designing an industrial separation process for newly synthesized chemical species. It can moreover be necessary to conduct trial separation runs in semi-industrial or pilot scale equipment in order to test the validity of the design procedures. The ELCAT research group can offer such expertise and state of the art equipment in order to measure and model the above. A selection of the possible measurements are:
- Measurement and modelling of phase equilibria
- Performing trial runs in atmospheric and vacuum distillation columns
- Performing chemical process simulations using leading industrial simulation software
- Measure and model residence times in industrial equipment
