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New Method Translator, DaVinci LGI, and More at the 2011 GCC
The 2011 Gulf Coast Conference was a mix of new, newer, fun, and bittersweet as Envantage introduced new products, hosted the biggest and baddest party at the conference, and said farewell to a dear friend.
We dedicated this year’s events to the memory of our good friend Neil Johansen. As noted previously on this blog Neil is considered the father of DHA and worked closely with Envantage to develop the Envantage DHA product. Many of his friends were in attendance at the conference and shared many fond memories of adventures with Neil. He will be missed.
Envantage Method Translator
On a more upbeat note – we were pleased to present data on a product we introduced at last year’s GCC conference. The Envantage Method Translator is a new tool to aid in the development of Fast GC Methods. It has been fleshed out in the past year and is now just about ready for deployment. In the next few weeks the interface will be tweaked a bit and Help files will be put in place. We expect this new tool to be in distribution before the end of the year.
Walter Spieksma, Envantage developer extraordinaire, gave a presentation about the Envantage Method Translator (EMT) Tuesday afternoon in the Daffodil room. The EMT is a graphical tool that presents new translated Methods in a comparative way with the original Method. The tool challenges conventional wisdom by applying decades-old theories that have stood the test of time. Walter demonstrated the application of the EMT to some common problems encountered in the analytical laboratory. Following is a condensed version of Walter’s slide presentation. It describes some of the features of the EMT and gives one real-world example. Don’t be intimidated by the number of slides – I have edited in many explanatory “bubbles” and many of the slides are duplicates. It is a fairly technical product to distill down – it will probably take about 10 minutes to go through the set. More information about the Envantage Method Translator will be posted on our website in the next few weeks.
DaVinci Europe Liquefied Gas Injector
In the past year Enavantage became the exclusive North American distributor of the DaVinci Europe Liquefied Gas Injector (LGI). This innovative analytical instrument won “Best New Technology” at last year’s GCC. It uses gasoline injection technology to inject LPG under pressure and at room temperature directly on column. This year the DaVinci/Envantage booth was buzzing with activity. There is high interest in this alternative way to analyze LPG, especially because ASTM approved a new ASTM Method using the LGI only days before the Conference. The new ASTM D7756-11 Method has particular appeal to those running ASTM D 2158, EN 15470, and EN 15471. The new Method is faster, safer, and – because it includes a chromatographic analysis of contaminates – it provides information about the possible source of the contaminants.
Jay Grills, Envantage ultimate go-to guy, delivered a presentation highlighting the technology and benefits of the DaVinci LGI. The slides from that presention can be viewed below. I think the slides speak well for themselves – I did not add any explanatory “bubbles”:
Party, Party, Party
We teamed up again with Restek and Interscience to host a Tuesday evening Hospitality Suite in the Garden Cay room of the Moody Gardens Hotel. We hope you had a chance to come by and visit us. We really enjoy meeting with our customers in the Gulf Coast area in this relaxing and informal setting. Here are photos taken at our booth and at the Hospitality Suite:
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In Memoriam: Neil Johansen
One of our closest friends and collaborators, Neil Johansen, passed away Tuesday September 20, 2011 in Aztec, NM. Known to many as the father of DHA, Neil was instrumental in developing the ASTM DHA Methods that we utilize today. Neil became part of our Envantage family in 2004 and contributed to the modernization of his DHA-WIN database which is now available as Dragon-DHA.
In his retirement, Neil was an avid fisherman and boater and was considered by most to have a love of life.
We will miss him.
Da Vinci Europe LGI for LPG Analysis at GCC2011
The DVE Liquefied Gas Injector
Envantage is now the exclusive North American distributor of the Da Vinci Europe Liquefied Gas Injector (LGI) on the Agilent platform. The LGI will be on display at the 2011 Gulf Coast Conference in the Da Vinci Europe booth 521.
New Technology for Oily Residues in LPG
We are very excited to be able to offer this innovative new product to our customers. At the 2010 GCC the Liquefied Gas Injector was awarded “Best New Technology”. The injector is able to inject gases in liquid phase under high pressure directly on-column. The on-column injection allows analysis of high boiling oily residues in LPG using a GC method. The GC method is currently a work item of ASTM D02.H0 on Liquefied Petroleum Gas: WK31249 Residues in Liquefied Petroleum (LP) Gases by Gas Chromatography with Liquid, On-Column Injection. The GC method will be balloted in the fall of 2011.
A paper will also be presented by our Da Vinci Europe colleagues: “Improving Analytical Precision of Contaminants in Liquefied Gases (ie: oily residue in LPG and pTBC in Butadiene)”. This presentation will focus on the high boiling or reactive components in light matrices that are an analytical challenge. Injection techniques which are designed to ensure representative sample matrix introduction may not be optimal for heavier high boiling components. A compromise between low temperature for the % level ” lights” and high temperature for the ppm level “heavies” can promote adsorption, discrimination or fractionation which are common phenomena seen when using liquid sampling valves or vaporizers. Da Vinci will show two applications of the LGI. The first application determines high boiling contaminants in LPG at mg/kg level according to Proposed WK31249. The second application analyzes para-tert-Butylcatechol in 1,3-butadiene. These two applications are compared with conventional ASTM methods for determining residue contaminants in liquefied gases.
More information about the Da Vinci Europe LGI is available on our website:
Click here to view general information about the LGI
Click here to view information about the application: Oily Residues in LPG
Envantage is now a Gulf Coast Conference Sponsor (Oct 11-12, 2011, Galveston, TX)!
We have stepped up our game at the 2011 Gulf Coast Conference. This year Envantage is a corporate sponsor of the event. This conference, held every October in Galveston, TX, is a favorite of ours because we have so many customers in the Gulf Coast area. It’s a great opportunity for us to connect with our friends and make even more friends! We host the biggest and best hospitality suite at the conference. This year we look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday evening, October 11, in the Garden Cay room, which is adjacent to the Moody Gardens Hotel lobby.
This year at the conference Envantage will be showcasing a new software product we have developed that will convert GC methods to fast GC methods. We will also be highlighting a new product we are distributing from Da Vinci Europe: the Liquefied Gas Injector (LGI). The LGI injects LPG under pressure and at room temperature directly on column.
The time/date/location of presentations and demonstrations about these products will be posted as soon as the information becomes available.
Muscle and Classic Car Show for a Good Cause
Envantage is proud to be a corporate sponsor of the 1st annual Customs and Classics Car and Truck Show. It’s a charity event designed to raise funds and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Proceeds from the event will go to the Texas Panhandle Lone Star Chapter of the National MS Society. The event will be held in Dumas, Texas Saturday, August 6, 2011. For more information go to www.dumascarshow.com
Faster D6730 DHA Using Hydrogen Carrier Gas
ASTM D6730 Detailed Hydrocarbon Analysis (DHA) is a chromatographic method that determines the individual hydrocarbon components of spark-ignition engine fuels. It is often referred to as PONA and/or PIANO analysis. The official ASTM D6730 Method specifies the use of Helium as the carrier gas. In recent years Helium has become less available, and, as a consequence, more expensive. Switching to the use of Hydrogen as a carrier gas is not only more economical but its chemical properties affect linear velocities in a way that results in the added benefit of shorter analysis run times.
Posted below is an article originally written in 2000 by our good friend Neil Johansen. Neil was instrumental in developing the ASTM DHA Methods that we utilize today. In 2000 he took it upon himself to use hydrogen as the carrier gas and work out the operating conditions necessary to match the DHA component separations obtained using Helium. His original Technical Note is reprinted below in it’s entirety and with Neil’s permission.
Here is a pdf of the article available for download and printing: Faster DHA
New DHA-DHAX Methods Using Hydrogen
A report (A New DHA (above ambient start) Method, 01/12/2000) was issued describing the conditions for an optimum method for the analysis of gasoline range petroleum samples. That method employed helium carrier gas, while this current work provides optimized DHA and DHAX methods using hydrogen carrier gas.
A new J&W DB-Petro 100m x 0.25mm ID, 0.5μm polydimethylsiloxane liquid phase, was previously setup with a 3.5m x 0.25mm 1.0 DB-5 precolumn as prescribed for the DHAX method, and was reported earlier showing excellent conformity to the DHAX method. Hydrogen carrier gas flow rate was studied to establish the optimum practical flow rate for obtaining the required component separations. It was found that a pressure of 40psig giving a measured column outlet flow rate of 4.6 cm3/min. was the maximum usable without significant loss of column efficiency. Since the analyses were faster than when using helium, the column oven temperature profiles has to be re-established. The oven temperature program was established at:
DHA Method
7.5 min. @ 30ºC to 48ºC @ 14.0º/min. & 25 min. @ 48ºC to 200ºC @ 2.7º/min.
DHAX Method
5.0 min. @ 5ºC to 50ºC @ 7.6º/min. & 33 min. @ 50ºC to 200ºC @ 2.7º/min
The sample used for this evaluation is a synthetic gasoline, blended with various gasoline feed stocks and other added components, called PONA-VI, available from Transition Labs**.
**update 11/23/2010: PONA-VI is currently available through Restek
Results
The DHA analysis is shown by the attached Figures One through Eight, while the DHAX analysis is shown in Figures Nine through Sixteen. The chromatograms are divided into normal hydrocarbon to normal hydrocarbon segments for convenience and since the method uses retention indices for identification purposes.
Original DHAX through C14 using Helium @ 43psig: 175 minutes.
New DHAX through C14 using Helium @ 66psig: 125 minutes.
New DHAX through C14 using Hydrogen @ 40psig: 88 minutes.
Click on any image for a larger view
Envantage Dragon MergeIT Improves Crude Oil Characterization
PerkinElmer published an article in Petro Industry News (October/November 2010 edition) highlighting their S-wafer technology in an article titled “Integrating Detailed Hydrocarbon Analysis Data with Simulated Distillation to Improve the Characterisation Of Crude Oils By Gas Chromatography”. In the article Envantage MergeIT software was used to combine SimDis results with DHA results to obtain a more precise characterization of crude oils for an improved boiling point curve.
To read a summary and download a pdf of the article click here
Gulf Coast Conference 2010
The Gulf Coast Conference was well attended this year – if you attended the conference we hope you had the chance to stop by our Hospitality Suite in the Garden Cay Room! There was a great turnout and a fun time was had by all!
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