Thar Instruments, Inc., today announced it successfully installed
its first product targeting the petrochemical industry. The SFC
PetroAnalyzer, an analytical supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)
system, shipped to customers in Indonesia and China this spring. The
first installation proved that the system performs better than
published examples from the older SFC systems on the market by
analyzing jet fuels per ASTM Method 5186. This method specifies the
use of carbon dioxide (CO2)-based chromatography with a flame
ionization detector (FID) for analyzing aromatic and polynuclear
aromatic content.
Additionally, Thar shipped another unit for analyzing both
aromatics in diesel fuels and olefins in gasoline to China. Like ASTM
Method 5186, ASTM Method 6550 also specifies the use of supercritical
CO2 as the mobile phase and an FID detector.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandated in 2002 that
ASTM Methods 5186 and 6550 must be used to analyze their respective
toxins. Therefore, Thar plans to introduce a new PetroAnalyzer
instrument into a California demonstration laboratory later in 2007.
"The PetroAnalyzer is our first foray into the petrochemical
market and we look forward to providing the same high quality products
and rapid support that we provide to the pharmaceutical industry,"
said Todd Palcic, Vice President of Thar Instruments. "In our minds,
all customers should be reference customers. Now we have our first
reference customers for our latest product and we look forward to
adding more."
About Thar Technologies
Thar Instruments, Inc., headquartered near Pittsburgh, PA, USA,
remains the only company in the world designing, fabricating and
selling analytical, preparative and process scale SFC systems. Now the
leader in the field, Thar's main focus is on coupling analytical and
preparative SFC modules with a growing number of advanced detectors to
broaden the application of the technology. Founded in 1990 by Dr.
Lalit Chordia, Thar employs approximately 60 people. For more
information on Thar and its products, visit www.thartech.com.