The environmental challenges require internationally accepted standards, in which limits and test methods are defined. Metrohm instruments and applications comply with a lot of international environmental standards.
Substances introduced into the environment are distributed among the environmental compartments water, soil (sediment), and air, as well as among the organisms living in them (biosphere). Only if we know the type and quantity of these contaminants can we protect the environment and its inhabitants.
Air is a heterogeneous mixture of finely dispersed, solid or liquid particles in a gas (air). Sampling includes both filter and continuous methods. While the first type is offline and supplies data over longer periods, powerful continuous samplers work online. They are directly coupled to one or more robust analyzers – inline of course.
Soil is a multiphase system in which all spheres coexist. Sample preparation is key for accurate and precise soil analysis. We offer you numerous sample preparation techniques with the appropriate analysis methods for different soil and sediment types.
A lot of the 100,000 compounds produced on a large industrial scale end up in our water supplies. A host of regulations and standards protect our water resources.
In step with regulatory compliance, we offer you the appropriate instrumentation and application for all types of water samples.
Crude oil is a highly complex mixture of hydrocarbons. Through desalting, distillation, and conversion, it is transformed into fractions of higher-quality hydrocarbons such as paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes, and olefins. Different ratios of these so-called PIANO compounds are blended to yield different fuel and lubricant types. Increasingly, fossil fuels are blended with biofuels.
Both blending and refining processes are demanding and require precise and reliable analysis. Regardless whether you deal with fossil or biogenic products, we are your specialist when it comes to analyzing them in accordance with international standards.
Paraffins, aromatics, naphthenes, and olefins are the main petrochemical classes from which the hundreds of compounds that make up volatile and semivolatile fossil fuels (e.g., gasoline and diesel) originate. The complex composition of fuels requires fast and accurate analysis methods, both in the lab and the process.
A lot of research is done on advanced biofuel technologies that minimize environmental impacts and that do not depend on food feedstocks and large agricultural areas. In the medium term, next-generation biofuels have the potential to become a crucial part of our energy future. In this context, biofuel analysis plays a decisive role, both in R&D and production.
Lubricants contain a base oil and a large number of additives to impart desirable characteristics. While the base oil is of mineral, synthetic, or vegetable origin, the main additive families are antioxidants, detergents, corrosion inhibitors, viscosity improvers, etc. Especially the additives have to be considered when analyzing chemical and physical lubricant properties.
Pharmaceutical analysis guarantees drug safety by providing information on the identity, content, quality, purity, and stability of pharmaceutical products using analytical chemistry. Metrohm offers you a broad range of instruments and applications for quality control and for monitoring and improving drug manufacturing. With myriads of pharmacopeia-compliant analysis methods, we are your qualified partner for all chemical-pharmaceutical analysis issues and analytical method validations.
In accordance with international pharmacopeias and various guidelines, Metrohm offers you analysis for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, impurities, pharmaceutical solutions as well as pharmaceutical starting materials, and finished pharmaceutical products (FPPs). Additionally, we provide numerous wet chemical methods for atline and online process control as well as inline monitoring methods for assuring cost-effective manufacturing processes that satisfy all regulatory demands.
APIs are used to cure, alleviate, prevent, or identify illnesses and diseases. They are present in small quantities and aim at restoring physiological functions in human beings. In international pharmacopeias, a list of monographs provides detailed descriptions of test methods, tests, and requirements.
Impurities are mainly introduced from the starting materials used and/or during synthesis of the active pharmaceutical ingredients. They are monitored according to both the directives of the ICH (International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use) and the pharmacopeias. Even small concentrations of impurities can have significant side effects.
Successful process monitoring relies to a great extent on the latest methods of ion analysis and spectroscopy. While the former – mostly wet chemical methods – are preferably measured online and atline, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is the ideal tool for inline monitoring, particularly in the light of the FDA’s PAT and QbD initiatives.
Today’s food and beverages (F&B) are much more than just simple "organic fuels" needed for survival. Beyond their nutritive value, they are consumed for their taste or flavor. Increasingly, they are also a source for maintaining health and enhancing our well-being via high-quality nutrition. At the same time, with an ever-increasing number of processed foods, food quality and safety aspects are becoming more important. All the more because foods are highly complex materials – prone to degradation and contamination – that contain myriads of compounds.
Analytical chemistry makes sure that consumers obtain safe and sanitary food in compliance with regulatory requirements. Nutrient information, food traceability, and protection against fraud are further challenges. From the process point of view, analytical chemistry supports the manufacturer to improve yields and optimize quality by offering robust, efficient, and sensitive instrumentation. Whatever your concern is, Metrohm is the right partner.
Although it contributes no calories to our diet, water is the most important life-sustaining resource for most organisms. It is the main constituent of beverages and it can be found in almost all foods. If somebody knows how to analyze water and beverages it’s Metrohm; more than 270 applications are testimony to this expertise.
Milk contains nearly all nutrients necessary to survive: fat, high-quality protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. It is our first food and as a raw material offers incredible refinement possibilities. Dairy products are probably the most diverse of all food groups. Because of the protein and fat matrix, milk and dairy samples require sample preparation. Metrohm instruments were developed in response to these tedious and error-prone sample preparation tasks. Our instruments are fast, accurate, and economical.
Fats and oils are a principal part of our nutrition and serve a lot of functions, from adding flavor and texture to emulsifying and acting as a heat transfer medium. For determining the nutritional value of fat- and oil-containing foods (margarine, mayonnaise, noodles, nuts, etc.), the determination of fat parameters (e.g., iodine, peroxide and acid value) as well as the ion and water content is crucial. Since fats and oils are prone to deterioration, the determination of the oxidation stability is a must. These analyses are part of Metrohm’s core competence.
The coating and finishing of surfaces using electroplating techniques is a highly sophisticated process. Be it the finishing of metal parts or the coating of printed circuit boards, the quality required in the intermediate and end products is only achieved if the composition of the process baths is right. At the same time, rising costs of raw materials and energy make it absolutely essential to drive production as efficiently as possible.
As a leading manufacturer of instruments for chemical analysis we know about the challenges of coating and finishing of surfaces using electroplating techniques. We offer you state-of-the-art instrumentation to control and optimize the quality of your coating processes − both in the laboratory and in the process environment.
Learn how you can perform quality control of incoming basic chemicals and raw materials for electroplating baths.
Learn what we have to offer for main component monitoring in electroplating baths.
Learn more about our analytical solutions for the monitoring of organic and inorganic additives in electroplating baths.
Growing populations – about 80 million every year – and industrializing countries create huge needs for electrical energy. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) the global energy demand will increase by about 65% by 2035. A major fraction of the required energy will continue to be provided by thermal – mainly fossil fuel-fired and nuclear – power plants. "Renewable" energy sources such as photovoltaics (PV) will be another backbone of our energy supply. Putting renewable energy on the grid requires powerful energy storage and conversion devices, such as supercapacitors, batteries, or fuel cells.
For these technologies to work at maximum efficiency, all constituents of power installations have to perform at the highest level: be it the monitoring of the water chemistry in thermal power plants, the wet chemical processing of solar cells and battery electrolytes, or electrochemical measurements of energy storage devices, Metrohm provides the adequate analytical solution.
The bulk of electricity is generated by fossil-fuel or nuclear power plants. These methods of energy production involve water-steam circuits that drive turbines. The extreme conditions in the reactors are conducive to corrosion, which reduces the power plant’s output, causes downtimes, or even jeopardizes the power plant’s safety.
Photovoltaic (PV) cells or solar cells convert energy of light directly into electricity. Common materials consist of monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon, thin-film solar cells, or the third-generation multilayer cells.
Besides fully integrated bath analysis for crystalline silicon, thin film (CIS/CIGS, CdTe, a-Si), and other cell types, we offer real-time methods for controlling the etch rates and surface characteristics. Additionally, we provide instruments and methods for straightforward analyses of (photo-) electrochemical processes in dye-sensitized and all other solar cells.
Energy demand and supply seldom coincide. In particular, renewable energy cannot be stored very efficiently and is therefore often not at hand when needed. Electrochemical, chemical, and electrical energy storage (EES) systems – mainly batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells – are promising means to balance availability and energy demand.
Metrohm is electrochemistry, and all over the world researchers use our sophisticated instruments for production, characterization, and development of materials and cells.
Synthetic polymers and plastics are a mainstay of modern life. Because of their versatility and physical properties, plastics and polymers have conquered nearly every aspect of human activity: airplanes and cars, packaging of all kinds, medical devices and products, electronics, and countless more – without high-quality and high-tech plastics most products we use today in everyday life would look very different.
Polymer production is a demanding process in which high-purity raw materials undergo complex reactions and are turned into polymers, resins, rubbers, and gums. To make sure that the products meet the specifications, the materials and processes have to be monitored along the entire production chain. This makes the use of specific and highly accurate analytical techniques indispensable. We at Metrohm are committed to providing the instrumentation and know-how you need to solve your analytical challenges in polymer analysis.
The quality of the raw materials used for polymer production is critical in view of the final product. Poor-quality raw materials will inevitably yield poor-quality polymers. Besides quality, aspects such as time to market, efficiency, and accuracy also play a key role in incoming inspection. Find out what Metrohm has to offer to make your materials inspection easier, faster, and more accurate.
The polymerization reaction is the pivotal point in polymer production. In this process step, you don’t want to leave anything to chance. You therefore need methods that operate where the reaction takes place and that yield immediate results. Check out our solutions for reaction monitoring: a range of spectroscopic instruments that deliver real-time results and process analyzers that perform online analysis automatically and accurately.
Polymers are the result of complex reactions and processes involving various raw materials and additives. The final product must therefore be thoroughly inspected to ensure that it meets the specifications. Our instruments and applications enable you to determine a variety of substances and parameters, including additives, copolymer levels, water content, halogens, and residual monomers or impurities.
Converting raw materials into more than 70 000 different products that are used in almost all industries, the chemical industry lies at the core of the global economy and, perhaps, modern civilization. There is hardly any industrially produced good that would exist without the chemical industry, all the more considering that it was not until the 19th century that chemistry, particularly organic chemistry, exploded with Wöhler’s urea synthesis.
Within just a few decades, numerous important industrial processes were developed that still shape today’s chemical processes – from the chlor-alkali to the Solvay process, to name just a few. The production of high-tech, high-purity chemicals requires safe and reliable analytical solutions. Find out what we have to offer in this area.
Basic or commodity chemicals are single, pure chemical substances that are produced on a large scale. They are classified into inorganic and organic chemicals. While the inorganics (acids, alkalis, salts, etc.) are mainly derived from minerals and play an important role in nearly all industrial processes, the organic chemicals are almost exclusively derived from petroleum, coal, and natural gas. They are transformed into simple building blocks before they are converted into myriads of intermediate products.
In the chemical industry, the purity of the chemicals comes first, second, and third. Whatever basic chemicals you want to analyze, we offer the appropriate instrumentation and know-how.
Solvents are the medium for most chemical syntheses. They aid in heat and mass transfer, facilitate separations and purifications, and act as vehicles for surface coatings, pigments, and dyes. The complex composition of colorant solutions or suspensions, particularly with regard to their binding capacity to the substrate, requires leading-edge analytical methods.
Analytical chemistry is Metrohm’s element. Metrohm offers a variety of analytical techniques for the quality control of solvents and colorants.
In plant operation, plant integrity and safety, production rate, product quality, and costs are primary objectives. These all depend on comprehensive process control through online and quasi-real-time monitoring of key process variables, often in explosive, dusty, corrosive, and hostile environments.
Our rugged process analyzers are built for these environments. They control the chemical and physical conversions in chemical processing and monitor the complex wastewater streams. Beyond that, we offer instruments and methods to monitor corrosion in your steam-tracing systems from corrosive species analysis and inhibitor monitoring to electrochemical analysis.