Posted by Ben Proudlove on Mon, Jul 19, 2010 @ 11:16 AM
Merrow Scientific are pleased to announce this year is the 20th Anniversary of the formation of Rubotherm GmbH.
Rubotherm are the manufacturers of the unique patented magnetic suspension balance used for high pressure gravimetric sorption. Originally this instrument was developed in the world renown Thermodynamics Dept in the Ruhr University, Bochum (Germany) when they had a specific application and found that nothing commerically available would allow them to measure at raised pressures and to the accuracy required. After this successful first project a spin out company was formed from the Ruhr Uni Bochum Thermodynamics Dept (you can see where the name comes from now!!) and since then for the last 20 years the Rubotherm MSB gravimetric system has been supplied worldwide for many applications, including:
- gas sorption
- measurement of gas density
- corrosion and degradation studies
- vapour sorption
- separation
- catalyst characterisation
- supercritical extraction
- thermo gravimetric analysis
There are countless applications possible and many leading research groups using the system for cutting edge work - please look at the Rubotherm section of this blog for further information.
Due to the unique design of the Rubotherm system we can very accurately measure small mass changes of sample while dosing gases or vapours across in all conditions - from ultra high vacuum to 2000bar; from 4K up to 1600degC; and in corrosive environments. In addition due to the expertise and knowledge built up at Rubotherm over the last 20+ years the accuracy and versatility of the system can be fine tuned to suit the exact research requirements - including unique high pressure thermodynamics expertise not available elsewhere.
Merrow Scientific are the exclusive partner in the UK and Ireland for Rubotherm and to celebrate 20 years of Rubotherm leading the way for high pressure sorption we have a number of special deals available - please contact us for further information.
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 10:49 AM
New research carried out by the Kitagawa group has resulted in the development of a new porous coordination polymer that is essentially triggered (in terms of its adsorption behaviour) as temperature increases - opposite to the behaviour of most porous materials. Further work has shown that oxygen is adsorbed more as temperature increases, whereas little adsorption of argon takes place so potentially this material could be used for separation of argon and oxygen (normally difficult due to similarities of these molecules).
Further details on this work can be seen here where they used BEL volumetric and Rubotherm gravimetric systems in combination with other techniques for characterising the material.
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Mon, Mar 22, 2010 @ 12:11
Professor Critoph's group at Warwick University have just taken delivery of their new state of the art Rubotherm system for measuring binary vapour sorption.
Situated in their recently refurbished laboratory with their existing Rubotherm system this Magnetic Suspension Balance gravimetric system and dosing system is specifically designed to allow two vapours to be created and mixed (to known amounts) before dosing over a sample to measure selective sorption. The system can also be used for single vapour or gas dosing and also mixtures of gases where temperature control is important when they are pressurised (e.g. CO2 for carbon capture work)
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 10:10 AM
Available in the UK and Ireland from Merrow Scientific (elsewhere in the world from Rubotherm) the Isosorp HyGrA range is an economically priced range allowing researchers with limited budgets the opportunity to utilise the Rubotherm patented technology to carry out gravimetric studies while subjecting samples to a wide range of conditions.
No longer are researchers limited to doing research to 20bar - simply because that's all the instrument can go to; the Isosorp HyGrA system allows sample mass change to be measured from Ultra High Vacuum to 200bar and from 77K to 770K (a wide range of other conditions including much higher pressures can be analysed using other systems from the Rubotherm range)
Systems are available for sorption research using gases, vapours and supercritical fluids so opening a wide range of applications such as hydrogen, CO2, methane storage; vapour adsorption and supercritical extraction. Further information can be seen on the economical gravimetric sorption analysis page
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Tue, Dec 22, 2009 @ 05:53 AM
As normal Merrow Scientific will be actively supporting the British Zeolite Association conference in 2010 (BZA2010). Details of the event can be seen on the BZA2010 homepage
This year's event will take place from 24th to 26th March at Southampton University.
The conference promises to, as normal, focus on zeolites but will also look at other areas including MOFs (metal organic frameworks) and "the application of porous solids for energy-related purposes."
If this is an area relevant to your research then we look forward to seeing you there. We'll have a stand and instruments on display as many of our systems are related to these areas of research, for further details have a look around our site or perhaps specifically on our pages for porous materials analysis; MOF research; gravimetric sorption analysis and laboratory stirred reactors.
And finally Seasons Greetings from Merrow Scientific to you all. We look forward to working with you in the New Year.
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Thu, Nov 12, 2009 @ 06:51 AM
New press release on greenwisebusiness.co.uk detailing the work I mentioned by Professor Critoph's team at Warwick University on a new method using waste heat from car engines to power air conditioning units using adsorption technology.
The article highlights something I mentioned before about the energy saving benefits associated with powering air conditioning using waste heat rather than engine power "In car air conditioning systems, it is expected to reduce both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by nearly five per cent."
The Rubotherm systems there allow them to carry out research on ammonia sorption without risk to the high precision balance so they can accurately investigate the effect of various conditions (including high pressures) on the ammonia sorption into activated carbon samples.
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 @ 12:49
Interesting paper recently published through the Journal of the American Chemical Society detailing work from the Kitagawa Group at Kyoto University and their research into porous coordination polymers.
Professor Kitagawa is well known to us as he's a good customer of Rubotherm and BEL both of which we represent exclusively in the UK and Ireland. I met him at the recent BZA (British Zeolite Conference) up in Ambleside where he presented on his work looking into Porous Coordination Polymers (PCPs) or Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs). They've recently been looking into frameworks that respond to a guest, in other words materials that can be unlocked/triggered by a guest molecule to facilitate a change in their structure changing the PCPs sorption profiles. So in simple terms materials that can be triggered to become more porous.
A brief question and answer section with Professor Kitagawa and his colleague on this subject can also be seen on ScienceWatch.com and further details seen on their group website
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Tue, Nov 03, 2009 @ 08:10 AM
Interesting website detailing the work being carried out by Professor Critoph and his team at the Warwick Energy Research at Warwick University. Using a range of equipment including the Rubotherm gravimetric sorption analysers they are looking at the research and development of adsorption cycle heat pumps, refrigerators and air conditioners.
One such system they are working on is using the waste heat from car engine exhausts to drive a modular thermal wave adsorption air conditioner. You'll find a great presentation on their site of the work they're currently researching.
Typically it's estimated current air conditioning units can lower the car's fuel consumption by over 10mpg, so having potentially quite an effect on the environment if every car owner drives around with their air conditioning on. I would assume that this new research from Warwick would potentially mean that in the future car drivers can keep cool in hot weather without any negative affects on their fuel economy, thus having huge potential benefits for the climate.
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Mon, Sep 07, 2009 @ 02:11
Since we represent a number of overseas instrumentation manufacturers in the UK we have a rather unique portfolio of catalyst characteristion systems available to our customers.
So these include reactors (stirred, fixed bed and multi-reactor systems), volumetric sorption analysers (surface area, porosity, chemisorption) and gravimetric sorption instruments (gas sorption, vapour sorption, TGA etc).
Please have a look at the options listed on http://www.merrowscientific.com/catalyst and see what you think. I’m sure if you’re involved in catalysts in any way that there will be something of interest. So have a look and if you have any questions or need anything at all let us know….
Posted by Ben Proudlove on Wed, Sep 02, 2009 @ 02:07
Two of our main product ranges that we supply in the UK market greatly benefit from the use of powerful earth magnetic technology.
Autoclave Engineers first developed and launched their magnedrive powered laboratory stirred reactors back in 1958 leading the world in this development. This was a way of having a sealed reactor free from risk of leakage or contamination that could be accurately stirred even when run at high pressures. This was achieved using a magnet coupling between driver magnets (rotated by an motor) and an encapsulated inner magnet assembly which leads to a shaft and impeller, so as the driver magnets are rotated the impeller and shaft are also rotated. Such are the strength of the magnets used that accurate controlled stirring can be achieved even at high torque requirements and under high pressures or temperatures.
The other excellent use of magnets comes from Rubotherm. Many years ago the research team in the Thermodynamics dept at the Ruhr University in Bochum had a project requiring gravimetric analysis of samples at raised pressures. Conventional gravimetric systems have a direct connection between the precision balance and the sample - which is great for low pressure applications, but once you get above 20bar or so or start to look into things like corrosive vapours then you get a bit stuck as your balance is in the same area as the sample you wish to subject to the high pressure etc, and doing so will damage the balance, so conventional systems weren’t any use.
So using a magnet/electromagnet coupling, a position sensor and a cracking control system they devised a magnetical coupling gravimetric system for measuring mass change/transfer of sample while subjected to a wide range of conditions.
This technology was eventually patented and a spin off company formed (Rubotherm). Systems have now been supplied all over the world for a variety of applications, including gas storage (e.g. hydrogen, CO2 or Methane into zeolites or MOFs), corrosion testing, biomass and coal gasification, polymer degradation and lots more. We’ve been up to pressures as high as 2000bar, temperatures as high as 1600degC and no problem at all dosing corrosive things over samples and measuring mass change.
The latest development allows TGA type measurements at raised pressures. Why would you want to do that? Well with some applications it allows you to imitate the real life conditions that would effect your sample and measure accurately what happens, for example HP TGA on oil, biomass or coal gasification, degradation of materials used in off shore drilling….. This hasn’t been possible until now as other TGA systems only operate at atmospheric pressures.
So thanks to the attraction of the magnet our customers in the UK are able to push their research into new and exciting areas……