Credit: Pittcon
Pittcon is well underway with exhibitors and attendees roaming the show floor, scientists networking and interviewing for jobs, booths demoing their new innovations and everyone excited for the experience and collaboration.
For 75 years, Pittcon has been drawing analytical chemists and other scientists from every conceivable industry. In 1949, the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy had a scant 14 exhibitors and 800 eager attendees. This year, there are about 470 exhibitors.
In anticipation of the big show, Labcompare recently sat down with one such exhibitor—Analytik Jena. Before Pittcon official kicked off, Product Manager Oliver Büttel gave us an idea of what he expected to see this year in San Deigo.
Q: Can you briefly describe the new TOC product you will be showing at Pittcon?
A: We are introducing the new generation of the multi N/C product family of TOC/TN analyzers, a product line we’ve been continuously developing for about three decades. This latest iteration includes three different models for environmental and general applications, as well as three additional models specialized in pharmaceutical applications. By offering flexible analyzer configurations with different injection and oxidation techniques, we are able to customize the instruments according to any user’s specific application requirements. Whether the sample is ultra-pure water, where lowest detection limits are of interest, or wastewater, which is typically characterized by elevated TOC contents as well as significant amounts of suspended solids, we can offer the optimum instrument solution. Several software and hardware features provide additional reliability, accuracy and long-term stability. The new multiWin Pro software has been developed based on many years of experience and suggestions from our customers, and makes analyses and method optimization easier than ever. Low consumables and maintenance requirements, and long-term warranties on critical analyzer components, make the multi N/C very economic to operate at any sample throughput.
Q: What problem(s) does this product address?
A: Samples for TOC analysis can vary greatly in their composition, and thus in their requirements to the analyzer used. A particular challenge (pun intended) are wastewater and similar samples that contain high amounts of suspended solid particles, which can be handled optimally by the direct injection technique, where an injection syringe is the only component a sample touches – no tubing or valves involved. Drinking or process water samples, on the other hand, are typically very clean and rather require low detection limits, which can easily be achieved by an analyzer that can run bigger sample volumes for best sensitivity. The choice of configurations the multi N/C family offers allows our users to select the analyzer model that best fits their needs. Another challenge is presented by elevated salt contents in samples like brines, e.g. from the refining or lithium mining industries. The new Salt Kit option specifically addresses this by efficiently trapping any salt contained in a sample, and protecting the combustion furnace and catalyst from clogging, again reducing the maintenance and consumables requirements.
Q: What makes this product different from others in the same category?
A: Besides the flexible configuration options, it is also the additional upgrades, e.g. for Nitrogen analysis and the accessories for automated solid sample analysis, that give the multi N/C its uniquely wide applicability. Different autosampler options, combined with optimizations of the analysis process, provide significant advantages in terms of sample throughput and unattended operation overnight. Unattended operation is further supported by the unique Self Check System, which ensures accurate, reliable results and an unmatched long-term stability for the largest batches of samples. The ergonomic, state-of-the-art multiWin Pro software, but also the easy routine maintenance of the system, provide a level of user friendliness yet to be seen in other analyzers.
Q: What trends/innovations in the chemical analysis space do you expect to see more of while at Pittcon/throughout 2024?
A: I think current innovations will explore the different ways AI can assist the modern laboratory in terms of optimization of workflows and data interpretation. This will also support the ongoing trend toward more automation in the lab, and I’m curious to see new innovations in this field. Automation, especially of sample preparation and handling, will enable analytical laboratories to increase their efficiency and sample throughput, so I expect established as well as new players in the field to show their latest and greatest. Automation coupled with AI-assisted data interpretation will also help integrate analytical results better with R&D and production processes. Supplemented by new analytical sensor technologies, we will get closer to real-time analytical process control, where chemical analysis will move from the lab directly to the process—perhaps not this year, but certainly in the near future.
Q: Is Analytik Jena participating in any short courses/symposiums/oral sessions/etc.?
A: We have scheduled two oral presentations this year. We will present our analytical solutions for the Lithium Battery Lifecycle, with application examples from lithium mining, battery materials analysis, and recycling. The second presentation will show additional details of the new multi N/C TOC analyzer family as part of the product launch campaign in the context of wastewater and natural water monitoring.
Q: Last year at Pittcon, there was an overwhelming focus on batteries, AI and PFAS. What do you think will be some of the most talked about topics this year?
A: I think all three of these topics will remain highly relevant for the next years. PFAS analysis is still a somewhat emerging field, and there is a lot of research going on. I’m looking forward to seeing novel analytical technologies emerge, as well as new technologies for environmental remediation of PFAS, e.g. in wastewater treatment. Batteries, but also other innovative energy sources and storage solutions are, and will continue to be of highest importance on our way to becoming a carbon-neutral society and battling climate change.
Over the years to come, I expect improvements of current battery chemistries in terms of efficiency and safety, but also new types of batteries, so I’m sure we will continue to hear a lot about this topic. AI, in my opinion, is only one part of a trend toward automation and digitization of modern laboratories. It is such a new technology that I think today we can’t even predict how AI will transform the lab of the future. I’m sure, however, that automation, digitization and miniaturization will bring the lab closer to the production equipment in industries like pharma/biopharma, but also others like food production, water treatment and mining.