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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Lab to Deliver Custom Scans For Refineries

H2Scan commissioned last month an expanded Environmental Conditioning Lab for use on a line of its hydrogen analyzers. The Valencia company manufactures sensors that measure the amount of hydrogen in the oil inside transformers used by utilities, petrochemical companies and nuclear power plants. The conditioning lab replaces a remote lab that H2Scan staff could use for its standardized products. The new lab gives the company the capacity to deliver customized products to refineries and petrochemical facilities. H2scan designed and built the new lab to its specifications in a secured facility adjacent to its corporate offices. Mike Nofal, vice president of sales and business development, said the conditioning lab makes H2Scan one of the most agile players in the market and it has room to expand as the company grows. “This expanded lab has already paid dividends in increasing production and streamlining our product delivery process, allowing us to cut our backlog and shorten delivery times,” Nofal said in a statement. The lab will be used for the Hy-Optima line of hydrogen analyzers. These detection devices are used in process applications to ensure production optimization of oil and petrochemical products. Each Hy-Optima sensor is calibrated for background monitoring of hydrogen in the presence of hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide gases with no interference to the H2 reading. The lab was designed to make sure that the sensors are conditioned to provide accurate hydrogen indication in the presence or absence of these gasses. Three models of the Hy-Optima products will be conditioned in the lab – the 740, 1740 and 2740. All have been available for more than 10 years and can measure hydrogen concentrations ranging from 0.5 percent to 100 percent in the presence of carbon monoxide up to 20 percent concentration and hydrogen sulfide at up to 3 percent concentration. The company is currently testing a new Hy-Optima model that can measure hydrogen in the presence of 50 percent carbon monoxide. Another new product in development will measure hydrogen in tail gas treater units at concentrations of 5 percent hydrogen sulfide. Somesh Ganesh, director of the lab and senior director of advanced development, said the lab will give H2Scan the flexibility to develop products that is unmatched in the industry. “The ability to certify hydrogen sensing in the presence of 50 percent (carbon monoxide) and 5 percent (hydrogen sulfide) is unheard of in the industry and means new alternatives for our refinery and petrochemical customers,” Ganesh said in a statement. Commissioning the lab follows by two months the start of testing on the new fifth generation Hy-Alerta hydrogen gas safety monitor. Production of sampling volumes will begin in the third quarter with high volume manufacturing expected by the end of the year. H2Scan’s customers include General Electric Co., Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co. and Proctor & Gamble Co.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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