Krohne introduces new NIR spectrometer system
Krohne, a measuring instruments provider for processing industries, has announced its new Spectrobay process near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer system for process control in the chemical industry.
In the last 10 years NIR spectroscopy has established itself as a powerful tool in the process analysis technology (PAT) sector, the real time measurement of the composition of the chemical substances being processed.
NIR is an ideally suited tool for the quantification of chemical compositions and its use in process control ensures that chemical production plants are operated at their technical and economic optimum.
The Spectrobay system is well-suited for a range of applications, including fluids, gases, and suspensions in conjunction with optical sensors.
According to Krohne, Spectrobay improves reliability and profitability in chemical plants and helps them achieve a return on investment in a shorter period of time.
The new system is suitable for chemical processing plants with several educts and raw materials that are reacted with a catalyst in a solvent.
Offering repeated measurements at many stages, Spectrobay can be used for quality checks for incoming material, measurement of product characteristics like identity and purity, evaluation of secondary component characteristics, as well as monitoring reaction progress during chemical conversion for safety and production performance.
The analysis components of the spectrometer system and the automation components are all housed in a single control cabinet, with one fibre optic cable transporting the optical signal to the process and another brings the light from the probe with its spectral information back to the cabinet.
The returned NIR spectrum is processed using a chemometric model stored on the PC to identify the chemical components and to determine their concentrations.
The inline flange probe is simply screwed in between two pipe flanges.
Because no electrically active parts are installed, the optical inline measurement is also ideal for use in areas with an explosive atmosphere.
In addition to the spectrometer, the Spectrobay system includes the analyser result transfer software (ARTS), which transforms results into file formats that can be forwarded to the control system.
Status signals and other analyser data can be used to flag potential errors and maintenance notifications and ARTS can also be used to compile official documentation and record consumption data and processes.
