Lab Research units and equipment
Supercritical Fluid Extraction units
EgiChem has available four Supercritical Fluid Extraction units of various scales and different specifications.
1) A 0.1 L extraction unit conceived and assembled by EgiChem; 2) A 0.5 L Spe-de SFE unit from Applied Separations (up to 100 ºC and 300 bar) allowing operation with cossolvent; 3) A dual (0.5 and 1.0 L) extractor (up to 150 ºC and 800 bar) allowing operation with cossolvent and design for supercritical carbon dioxide and subcritical water operation; 4) A 5 L extractor (up to 150 ºC and 600 bar) with cossolvent operation and carbon dioxide recycling which functions under two different operating cycles. Uses a 0.5 L separator.
Adsorption / Regeneration Unit
This unit, assembled by EgiChem, was conceived to obtain breakthrough curves and equilibrium isotherms of different gases (contaminants), as well as test the regeneration capacity of different adsorbents.
In order to characterize que adsorption and regeneration capacities of different adsorbents to remove air contaminants, this unit comprises a gas mixture module (mass flow controller (ALicat), pressure transducer (ALicat), a back pressure regulator (ALicat), 16 electric solenoid valves (Mega Control) ), an adsorption column, a tubular furnace and a GC-BID. The GC-BID, by Tracera, has a gr great detection sensitivity to quantify the residual amounts of contaminants studied (in order of ppb).
Simulated Moving Bed (SMB) Unit
Designed and currently under construction by EgiChem, the SMB unit allows the continuous chromatographic separation of compounds with low selectivities like isomers and enantiomers.
The main components of this unit include eight chromatographic columns arranged in a 2-2-2-2 configuration, four HPLC type pumps (two inlet and two outlet pumps), and 8 multi-position rotary valves that direct the fluid flow and simulate the countercurrent movement of the solid by switching the positions of the inlet and outlet ports. A dedicated computer is responsible for the data acquisition and control system.
Diffusion Coefficients Unit
Conceived and assembled by EgiChem, this unit provides measurements of diffusion coefficients of liquid or supercritical mixtures.
This unit comprises a thermostatic bath (F12, Julabo), two syringe pumps (260D and 100DM, Teledyne ISCO) coupled with a controller unit , an oven (LSIS-B2V/IC 22, Venticell, MMM Group), a preheating column, an injector with an internal loop of 0.1 microliter, two diffusion columns of PEEK (polyetheretherketone), an UV Detector 2500 (A4061, Knauer), a back pressure regulator (BPR) (BP-2080 Plus, Jasco) and a soap bubble flow meter.
High pressure / high temperature stirred reactor
A general purpose pressure vessel capable with temperature control.
600 ml PARR reactor (maximum working pressure of 200 bar, and maximum temperature of temperature 180 ºC) with mechanical stirring, two heating jackets (900W each), water cooling, and temperature control.
Critical Point Dryer
The Critical Point Dryer (CPD) allows the drying of materials, such as aerogels, with supercritical carbon dioxide.
The Quorum Technologies E3100 Critical Point Dryer features a horizontal pressure chamber measuring 63.5 mm internal diameter and 82 mm in length. The chamber has an external water jacket for temperature control and samples are introduced via a removable rear door. The front of the chamber has a 25 mm diameter window which gives a view of the liquid level during the drying process.
Membranes Unit
Membranes characterization through gas permeance measurements.
Conceived and assembled by EgiChem, this unit comprises a membrane module, mass flow controller (ALicat), pressure transducer (ALicat), a back pressure regulator (ALicat), 16 electric solenoid valves (Mega Control) and a gas chromatograph (Dani 1000 DPC).
Oligomerization Unit
Conceived and assembled by EgiChem, this unit is devoted to performing catalytic reaction experiments between atmospheric pressure till a maximum pressure of 55 bar and temperatures of reaction from 25 ºC till 500 ºC
Syringe pump, mass flow controller, stainless steel tubular reactor with 80.4 cm3 capacity, tempeature PID controller, tubular furnace. Pressure is regulated by a back pressure regulator operated manually. The gas and liquid products are analyzed in a Fast GC equipped with a FID detector, and a VB-1 (ValcoBond, VICI) capillary non-polar column. Unit is controlled using built-in interface with on-line data acquisition.
Other facilities
Several other facilities are available, including:
GC-PDD-FID, GC-FID, GC-BID, UV (DAD) detectors, particle size analyzer, rotary evaporator, high speed refrigerated centrifuge, orbital agitator, sieve shaker, vacuum oven, Karl Fischer, ultrasound bath, Soxhlet units, high precision balance, humidity balance, and more.