Black body for calibration of the IR camera has been developed and manufactured. This relatively small device will be used inside an apparatus and serve as an internal temperature standard. The thermograms taken through KBr windows are affected by the non ideal KBr transparency and the black body known temperature provides necessary calibration standard. The black body can be heated as well as cooled by the means of a Peltier heat pump, which is in turn cooled by a cooling water. First results show behavior Continue reading →

What to do when the supervisor is sick with Covid? One have to find all the equipment, prepare the facility and perform the experiments on his/her own. Or… changes into remote controlled object who is carefully navigated and instructed by the online instructor, ressembling orienteering competitor or RC toy car…

The build-up of the so called Apparatus C has started by dismantling of the extraction apparatus. Michal, the responsible person, needs to have four hands to complete some tasks…

We have acquired samples of the new random packing produced by Sulzer. Competing with Raschig SuperRing (Raschig) and Intalox Ultra (Koch Glitsch), the NexRing is nice example of the fourth generation random packing and of that where the development of the packings proceeded throughout the last century. We are currently measuring hydraulic and mass-transfer properties of the packing under absorption and distillation conditions.

We have obtained a fourth generation random packing from Sulzer called NexRing, delivered in two sizes – 0.7 and 1.2.  Putting it into the three meters column can not be just pouring it down from the top as a specified number of the elements in the cubic meter of the packed bed needs to be achieved and the elements tend to accumulate in the center of the column leaving the circumference less densly filled.  Using the sanitary tubes we have achieved the goal….

Sampling of the vapour and liquid phase from the packed bed of the distillation column is far from an easy task. The prototypes of the sampling points are depicted. Each type must be tested and the results compared with the standards. The internal name of the last iteration is “Sputnik 69” 

The work on the hydrogen analyzer progresses into the verification phase – long term stability of the probes is tested. Tomáš carefully records the measured signal – it must be stable for at least 90 days. The hydrogen probes are used for the measurement of the hydrogen fugacity in the primary loop of the nuclear powerplants. The hydrogen reacts with any traces of the oxygen – thus suppressing corrosion.    

We are currently investigating extraction of the acidic catalyst from the organic phase coming from the reactor producing acrylic ester in the Synthomer a.s.