The Grandmother retires!

After almost 20 years of reliable service a Gasmet FTIR multigas analyser has finally been retired. The instrument, which is a Gasmet 9540 was purchased at the end of the last century by VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland.

“We have utilised this analyzer in a variety of research projects over the years and it has performed extremely well. However, some of the spare parts are no longer available so we have purchased a new Gas DX4000 as a replacement,” comments Mari-Leena Koskinen-Soivi, a Research Scientist at VTT working in sustainable syngas R&D and analytics.

Mari-Leena Koskinen-Soivi

The old Gasmet 9540 was originally purchased for online wet gas analysis on a pressurised flat bed reactor conducting research work on catalysts, providing simultaneous analysis of compounds such as ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, methane, ethane, ethene, benzene, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and others.

Mari-Leena says: “We affectionately call this instrument the ‘Grandmother’ - the main advantage of the old Gasmet 9540 over our laboratory instruments was its speed and simplicity. We still have a requirement for the continuous analysis of multiple gases – usually over 60 compounds – so we are excited to see how the new Gasmet DX4000 will perform.”

Jari Jaakkola, from Gasmet says: “The core technology is still the same, but our FTIR instruments have continued to develop and improve since VTT bought their first instrument. Apart from the new instruments being smaller and lighter, VTT will see a vast improvement in performance. However, I am sure that Mari-Leena will be pleased to discover that the newer instruments have retained the speed and simplicity of their ancestors.”

Established in 1942 and employing over 2,400 staff, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is the leading research and technology company in the Nordic countries. VTT has a national mandate in Finland, using research and knowledge to provide expert services for domestic and international customers and partners in both the private and public sectors.

VTT develops new smart technologies, profitable solutions and innovative products, production processes, methods and services to produce technologies that benefit society. Much of Mari-Leena’s work is focused on efficient methods for the generation of renewable energy, and is therefore contributing to the global fight against climate change.

Mari-Leena has worked at VTT since 1979; starting in peat research and later moving to gasification. For the last 15 years she has been working with catalysts and synfuels. “Accurate multigas analysis is therefore a crucial element of our work,” she adds. “Continuous online monitoring provides much greater insight into process conditions and helps us to understand the chemical processes that are taking place. With the ability to fulfil this role on hot, wet complex gas mixtures, FTIR is one of our most important analytical tools, and with proven reliability lasting 20 years we don’t have to worry about the quality of Gasmet instruments!”

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