Stuart Schroeder and Wade Hagman achieved a breakthrough when Stuart ran the solution-cathode glow discharge (SCGD) device. This is the world’s first application of the SCGD for online industrial process control applications.
SCGD is a simpler, more portable, and more stable alternative to existing lab-based techniques for elemental analysis of process control applications.
“The commercialization of the SCGD for on-line elemental analysis represents disruptive technology with little competition from other analytical instrumental techniques,” according to Stuart.
As a result of the project, the SCGD is poised to challenge the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) as the sole dominant technique of atomic spectrometry. InnoTech intends to commercialize the technology, based on the SCGD, which will allow on-line elemental analysis of aqueous solutions for industrial process control and environmental monitoring.
The SCGD is poised to upset the status quo, as the need exists for this technology as none of the known lab-based methods have emerged as workable. Its simplicity is compelling because the elemental analysis is achieved without plasma gas consumption, active cooling, short-term drift, and high-power consumption.
Stuart and Wade’s work is also a compelling example of applied research thanks to their client relationship with Canadian Natural Resources Limited and Imperial Oil.
“Our industrial funding partners (Imperial Oil Resources Limited and Canadian Natural Resources Limited) represent two in-situ oil sands companies in Alberta. Successful implementation of SCGD technology, with our oil sands partners, will lead to operating cost savings at in-situ oil sands central processing facilities. Currently, in-situ oil sands facilities rely heavily on infrequent manual sampling and laboratory water analysis for process control. On-line elemental monitoring with SCGD will allow operations to run closer to process targets, which will lead to operating cost savings via reduced steam generator fouling, optimized chemical dosage, and an increase in average steam quality. An increase in steam quality will also lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity.”
– From The Atomic Spectroscopy Solution in the Analytical Scientist
“The development and commercialization of the SCGD is a direct result of the oil sands industries that have funded this promising technology and turned it into a potentially global product that benefits industries in multiple sectors,” according to Stuart.
Stuart explains: “Improvements to SCGD will continue to be made, but the basics of operational principles have been established and this novel plasma is ready for commercialization – for which there is an appetite, driven by the industrial need for process optimization in real time. Initial success here could be the catalyst for widespread adoption of SCGD.”
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