Mar 19 2009
Symyx Technologies Europe has announced the availability of the Symyx Screening Pressure Reactor (SPR), a high-throughput research system that enables up to a 100-fold increase in the speed of screening and optimising catalysts and catalytic processes. The Symyx SPR is available for refining, petrochemical and fine chemical applications. It encompasses Symyx's chemistry, engineering and software expertise to perform experiments in parallel and in miniature with precision, speed and reliability.
"The Symyx Screening Pressure Reactor and associated integrated workflow provide us with a state-of-the-art solution for catalysis screening," said Dr. Garret Hoge, Product Manager Catalysis, Solvias. "With the Symyx SPR, our hit rate for finding solutions for our customers has increased from 50% to over 90%. Furthermore, our increased throughput often results in the discovery of multiple leads for our customers."
Heather Brown, Scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, said, "In a project designed to convert cellulose into useful products, we utilised the Symyx Screening Pressure Reactor to optimize catalyst composition and reaction temperature. We ran over 120 unique catalyst/temperature combinations, for one part of the project, in just under one week (including analytical). Had this work been done using traditional techniques it would have taken the same person nearly 4 months to complete. Using the Symyx SPR also reduced reagent costs, since each reaction could be performed on a 500 mg scale. This system proved invaluable."
The Symyx Screening Pressure Reactor enables up to a 100x increase in experimental throughput over conventional techniques, enabling scientists to test more catalysts under more conditions and to quickly make better informed decisions in the course of targeted catalyst and process optimization programs. In addition, the Symyx SPR offers unmatched experimental throughput enabling a single scientist to perform up to 15,000 experiments per year, providing the ability to screen the broadest possible parameter space in the search for breakout catalysts when used as part of an integrated workflow.
The simple, robust design of the Symyx SPR (only one pressure seal per 96 reactors) enables exceptional system reliability and up-time, as demonstrated by a significant installed base of more than 20 systems already in use at leading catalyst R&D companies around the world. Offering high-temperature operation to 400°C for refining and petrochemicals applications and high-pressure operation to 1,500 psig for fine chemicals applications the Symyx SPR has broad applicability to enhancing many processes.
"Symyx has successfully used Screening Pressure Reactors for more than 8 years in a wide variety of projects in the chemicals and refining areas," said Anthony Volpe, Vice President, Catalysis, Symyx Technologies, Inc. "We have performed several hundred thousand experiments using this equipment and have found its versatility, throughput and ease-of-use to be uniquely effective for catalyst development and optimisation. We have standardised certain components now and are excited to offer it to customers at a competitive price point for applications across a large number of industries."
Symyx's unique approach to integrated research and development through a combination of automated laboratory workflows (Symyx Tools), integrated project execution/decision support applications (Symyx Software) and directed research (Symyx Research) helps research organisations to achieve breakthrough R&D performance.