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Validating CRDS for Moisture Analysis in Medical Oxygen

Validating CRDS for Moisture Analysis in Medical Oxygen

Medical oxygen is one of the most commonly used gases in the healthcare industry, from giving O2 to critical care patients, providing the basis for anesthesia, to supplementing O2 to patients with chronic lung diseases, such as COPD.

To ensure that the oxygen meets the necessary quality to prevent harm to patients, strict standards outline limits to a variety of possible impurities in the gas, one of them being water vapor (H2O). One of the most common standards for medical oxygen is the European Pharmacopeia (EP) standard, we will demonstrate analytical equivalency between the Process Insights’ Tiger Optics’ Spark Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) analyzers and demonstrate analytical equivalency to traditional electrolytic moisture analyzers, so the Spark can be used as a more modern and powerful alternative.

Proving Equivalency to European Pharmacopeia
The EP standard dictates that the maximum water vapor content in medical and pharmaceutical grade gas must be less than 67 parts per million (ppm), and the recommended method for analysis of moisture content in medical gases is electrolytic based sensors. Since this standard was published in 1999, gas manufacturers have significantly improved their process efficiency, resulting in considerably higher purity product; at
the same time, the state-of-art in analytical technologies for moisture measurement has evolved. The combination of improved analytical capabilities and higher purity product creates an opportunity for gas manufacturers to maximize the return on oxygen by qualifying it for multiple uses in a single validation step.

Based on powerful, proven CRDS, the Process Insights‘ Tiger Optics Spark H2O offers a wide dynamic range, from single-digit parts-per-billion to one thousand ppm for analysis of moisture in oxygen. This low-cost, fast and accurate analyzer features self-zeroing and auto-verification, eliminating the need for field calibration and saving time & money on labor and consumables. In addition to qualifying oxygen, the same analyzer can service nitrogen, argon, helium, hydrogen, clean dry air, and many other gases and mixtures. In support of the proposed use of the Tiger Optics Spark for qualification of medical oxygen, we present the following validation data, demonstrating equivalency in accuracy of the Spark H2O with two EP-approved electrolytic moisture analyzers.

The Tiger Optics Spark analyzer allows accurate measurement of moisture in oxygen to within ±4% or 6 ppb, whichever is greater, as clearly demonstrated in the present validation data. Thereby, it demonstrates equivalency with the European Pharmacopoeia standard, which mandates a relative accuracy of less than ±20%. Plus, the Spark affords a significant performance advantage over the incumbent electrolytic based sensors, including lower detection limits, wider dynamic range, higher accuracy, and faster speed of response. This allows for better throughput and simplified product qualification, ultimately saving end-users time and money. It should be noted that the ability to conduct one-step qualification of pure oxygen for multiple applications provides significant value to users.

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Helium Tube Trailer Filling

Industrial gas manufacturers use different methods to package and deliver gases, including on-site pipelines, bulk delivery of liquefied gas to on-site containers, exchange programs for large compressed gas vessels (such as tube trailers), and smaller cylinder deliveries. Each method has its own benefits and costs. In this article, we focus on the challenges and requirements of filling tube trailers with high-purity helium, and how the Tiger Optics Spark H2O analyzer is the ideal solution for detecting trace moisture during this process.

Challenges of Helium Tube Trailer Filling

Filling helium tube trailers is a complex and costly task. Helium is extracted from natural gas fields in places like Algeria, Australia, Canada, Qatar, Russia, and the U.S., and delivered as bulk cryogenic liquid in refrigerated ISO tankers. Because the bulk liquid is not stable, it must be quickly transferred into more stable forms, usually by gasifying and compressing the helium for filling pressurized vessels.

Helium shortages in recent years have caused prices to rise, with helium now costing more than $200 per thousand cubic feet (SCF). As a result, efficiently managing helium processing is important for minimizing product loss and increasing profitability. Filling a helium tube trailer can also take up to 14 hours for the largest 180,000 SCF tube bundles, making it crucial to manage the filling process efficiently.

Helium Tube Trailer Filling Process

The process involves several steps: gasification, compression, purification, and finally, filling the tubes. Each step requires careful monitoring to optimize both energy use and time. Moisture measurements are particularly important at certain points during the process:

  • Incoming Helium Product: Crude helium is often too wet to be packaged and needs purification. Measuring moisture levels in the incoming gas helps optimize the purification process.

  • Post-Purification: The purification system uses an adsorptive bed to remove impurities, but over time the bed can become saturated with moisture. Monitoring the output stream helps determine when the bed needs regeneration based on moisture levels.

  • Tube Trailer Inlet: Monitoring moisture levels as helium enters the tubes ensures that the trailer is filled with helium that meets quality standards. Even small variations in moisture levels can indicate the need for process adjustments, such as slowing purification to better extract moisture.

Traditional moisture measurement methods are often slow, have limited ranges, and average signals, which can miss moisture spikes. This can lead to energy waste or, in the worst case, an entire trailer being filled with off-spec product due to missed moisture spikes. Also, when switching between sampling points—like from crude helium to purified helium—traditional analyzers may become saturated, taking hours or even days to recalibrate.

Improved Measurement with the Spark H2O Analyzer

Our Tiger Optics Spark H2O analyzer, which uses Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS), is the ideal solution for these challenges. It provides precise, real-time moisture detection at each critical measurement point, without the need for zero or span gases. With its fast response time and accuracy, the Spark H2O analyzer ensures that helium tube trailer filling meets quality standards efficiently, helping reduce operational costs and improve profitability.

Impurity Monitoring In Fuel-Cell Hydrogen

A Single-Supplier Solution For Impurity Monitoring In Fuel-Cell Hydrogen

Global efforts to reduce harmful emissions have focused on lowering carbon output, particularly in transportation. Fuel cells provide a flexible solution, powering everything from laptops to power stations, and are seen as key to transitioning to a zero-emission energy sector. A hydrogen fuel cell efficiently produces electricity with water and heat as the only byproducts, making it ideal for zero-emission vehicles.

While most hydrogen is still made from fossil fuels, a strong hydrogen infrastructure can shift production to carbon-free methods in the future. Fuel cells are more efficient than combustion engines and offer similar range (500-700 km) while refueling quickly at stations, unlike battery-electric vehicles.

However, hydrogen purity is critical to fuel cell performance. Impurities, such as methane, moisture, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, can affect the fuel cell depending on hydrogen production methods. Maintaining low impurity levels is essential for fuel cell efficiency, as specified by standards like ISO 14687 and SAE J2719.

Process Insights provides accurate tools to monitor hydrogen quality. Their analyzers, based on Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS), detect trace contaminants at ppm and ppb levels, ensuring compliance with purity standards and supporting fuel-cell performance. These instruments are drift-free, highly specific, and require no expensive calibrations, saving time and money.

Fuel Cell Hydrogen Solutions

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Moisture Detection in Electronic-Grade Bulk Gases

Parts-Per-Trillion Moisture Detection in Electronic-Grade Bulk Gases

The semiconductor market is entering a new era of innovation. New applications are driving demand for advanced devices with stricter requirements for reliability, power handling, and power consumption. These devices must also be smaller and more functional, with smaller technology nodes.

Powerful smartphones, tablets, automotive sensor systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and smart power grids are all growing rapidly. Self-driving cars, for example, need huge amounts of computing power to process data from cameras and sensors in real-time, and the processors must be both reliable and power-efficient.

The Need for Better Gas Quality and Analytics

To meet these challenges, the semiconductor industry is focusing on improving manufacturing quality. The International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) emphasizes stricter controls across all stages of production, from cleanroom conditions to raw materials, including gases. As a result, controlling gas quality has become a top priority to increase yields and reduce failure rates.

With tighter gas quality control, there is also a growing need for more sensitive and accurate analytical tools. Real-time process control has become essential for fab operators.

In advanced semiconductor fabs, Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) analyzers are the gold standard for ensuring the quality of bulk gases like N2, CDA, O2, H2, Ar, and He.

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HCl Continuous Emissions Monitoring

HCl Continuous Emissions Monitoring

Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) is a major atmospheric pollutant associated with the combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal and heavy oils, and also with a number of manufacturing processes, including cement production.

HCl in the atmosphere has an adverse effect on both human health and the wider environment. The inhalation of even low concentrations of HCl can cause irritation of the respiratory tract in healthy individuals and exacerbate symptoms associated with conditions such as asthma and emphysema.

Dissolved HCl is a contributor to acid rain pollution, the results of which include damage to building materials and reduced crop yields.  Atmospheric HCl pollution is also a factor in the production of photochemical smog. The economic impact makes the reduction of HCl pollution a priority for regulators and industry. HCl is generated by multiple industrial processes, with combustion of coal and oil for household and industrial power generation as the primary source. Here, chlorides present in the fuel are converted to HCl in the combustion process and emitted with other by-products. In addition, industrial processes emit HCl as a result of chlorides present in raw materials that are converted to HCl during production. In cement production, for instance, raw materials, including calcium carbonate, silica, clays, and ferrous oxides, all contain chlorides, resulting in generation of HCl.

Regulators worldwide dictate strict emissions limits for many atmospheric pollutants, including HCl. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently reduced emissions limits to further lessen the impact of the issues.  These emissions limits require HCl emitters to monitor and report the level of the gas present in stack emissions and to ensure that steps are taken to guarantee that emissions fall below the specified limits. This may require the emitter to either refine their process, via the use of cleaner fuels, for example, or to add abatement technology downstream of the process to reduce emissions of HCl.

Current analytical methods for HCl CEM applications include GFC/NDIR, FTIR, and cross-stack TDLAS. These methods have, to date, been adequate to monitor HCl emissions, based on existing emissions limits. The detection limits for some of these techniques will not be sufficiently low, however, to meet the revised limits, and so alternative techniques will be necessary.

CRDS gas analysis technology offers the performance and range to cope with these regulations, delivering accurate measurements at levels far below the new limits in diluted stack gas.

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Next-Generation Monitoring of Airborne Molecular Contaminants in Cleanrooms

Monitoring Airborne Molecular Contaminants in Cleanrooms

Airborne Molecular Contaminants in Cleanrooms

The dust-free and controlled environment of a cleanroom is vital to prevent product failure in semiconductor manufacturing but controlling particulates in cleanrooms is not nearly sufficient to protect semiconductor devices that feature structural sizes on a molecular level. Micro-particles are the main source of physical contamination, but modern filtration systems for air supply, cleanroom attire and specialized surface materials have been successful in keeping particle contamination under control.

There are, however, molecular contaminants, which can range from small inorganic molecules like acids and bases, to more complex organic species like VOCs. These molecules are known to cause chemical contamination (i.e. they react with the materials and surfaces of the semiconductor devices to cause oxidation, unintended doping, dislocations, and more).

This class of contaminants is collectively known as Airborne Molecular Contaminants (AMCs). They are harder to control than particles. Firstly, the molecules are much smaller than particles and require more advanced chemical filtration of the cleanroom air. Secondly and more importantly, however, many AMCs are created within the cleanroom itself. For instance, HF is used for wafer cleaning within the process, and NH3 is emitted naturally by any person present in the cleanroom. As feature sizes have decreased over the decades, both devices and equipment became more and more susceptible to significant damage from AMCs. They can have various detrimental effects: Acids, such as HF or HCl, can cause micro-corrosion and accelerate oxidation. Bases, such as NH3, can cause hazing and attack coatings on the optics of UV lithography equipment. Hydrides, such as AsH3, PH3, or B2H6, can cause unintended doping, which can dramatically impact a devices functionality.

Monitoring AMCs is Key to Contamination Prevention
Because many AMCs are generated within the cleanroom, they cannot be completely avoided, even though wafers are shielded as much as possible from exposure nowadays, e.g., by transporting them in closed pods (FOUPs) between process steps. Precise monitoring of the cleanroom environment for these molecules has emerged as a key for semi fabs to further mitigate the threat of AMCs. By immediately detecting the presence of harmful molecules, engineering controls can be implemented to protect devices and processes from exposure.

Due to the low concentration of AMCs and the need for fast detection, measurement instruments have to fulfill stringent requirements. As a result, ultra-sensitive laser-based analyzers have emerged as the primary class of instrument used to detect small AMCs, such as HF, HCl or NH3. Semiconductor fabs require all of these molecules to be measured at levels below 1 part per billion (ppb) with a response of 1-3 minutes to any presence of molecules. More importantly, the instruments readings have to return to baseline as fast as possible after the molecules’ presence is eliminated to minimize delays in the manufacturing process. The International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) even calls out detection requirements below 0.1 ppb as part of the future technological challenges.

Introducing our NEW T-I Max Next-Generation AMC Monitors
To address this challenge, Process Insights manufacturers the TIGER OPTICS™ T-I Max™ series of cleanroom analyzers for detecting AMCs like HF, HCl, and NH3 with unprecedented speed and sensitivity. The T-I Max uses powerful Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) Technology but uses an all-new electronic and optical platform that enables lower measurement noise and up to ten times faster measurement rate. This platform takes CRDS to the next level and dramatically lowers detection limits compared to previous generation analyzers.

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Cost-Effective Purity Analysis in the Cryogenic Air Separation Process

Cost-Effective Purity Analysis in the Cryogenic Air Separation Process

Did you know you can improve safety and your process efficiency by using CRDS gas analyzers?   

CRDS analyzers offer many opportunities to improve the air separation process by saving time and money and alerting plant operators quickly in case of unsafe impurity levels.  Key advantages of using CRDS gas analyzers include:

  • Freedom from calibration
  • No consumables or service gases required
  • All solid-state design, no moving parts
  • Plug-and-play, easy to operate
  • Accurate detection of H2O, CO2, CH4, C2H2 and H2
  • Fast speed of response, ideal for process control

Cryogenic Air Separation
Cryogenic air separation units (ASUs) are the gas industry’s workhorses for the production of gaseous and liquid high purity nitrogen, oxygen and argon. The cryogenic process can be modified to manufacture a range of desired products and mixes.

Controlling Impurities to Ensure Safe ASU Operation
Following compression, the air pre-treatment step consists of cooling and purification to remove process contaminants, such as H2O, CO2 and others. The most common purification methods are Temperature Swing Adsorption (TSA), which exploits the difference in adsorption capacity of adsorbents at different temperatures, and Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), which operates similarly via pressure variations.

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Welcome Tiger Optics

Welcome Tiger Optics

PROCESS INSIGHTS ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF TIGER OPTICS, LLC

BOSTON, MA – June 15, 2018. Union Park Capital (“UPC”), a Boston based investment firm focused on industrial technology, has acquired Tiger Optics, LLC (“Tiger”), a pioneer in the use of Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (“CRDS”) and leading manufacturer of laser-based spectroscopy gas analyzers and air monitors. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Tiger Optics, based in Warrington, PA, will operate as an independent entity under Process Insights (“PI”), a UPC investment focused on process analytics and measurement instrumentation companies. Process Insights includes, Cosa Xentaur Corporation, Alpha Omega Instruments, LAR Process Analysers, and now Tiger Optics.

Founded in 2001 by Lisa Bergson, Tiger offers a wide and proven array of customer-lauded trace gas analyzers and air monitors used in high purity industrial gas, semiconductor, laboratories, life science and various other end markets. Based upon CRDS, Tiger’s instruments provide outstanding detection capabilities with continuous self-calibration and no consumables required.

“Tiger Optics is a great addition to the Process Insights family of businesses,” said Monte Hammouri, CEO of Process Insights. “The products and technology are highly complementary to our other businesses and will help us better serve our customers through a more complete product offering. We are thrilled to welcome Tiger to the family.”

“We are very excited about the future of Tiger Optics and the partnership with Union Park Capital and Process Insights,” commented Steven Geserick, Director of Operations. “With Process Insight’s existing resources, we will not only be able to develop new ideas faster but can bring our existing solutions into new adjacent markets,” added Erika Coyne, President of Tiger Optics. Erika will assume the President role and Steven will continue on as Director of Operations.

About Tiger Optics

Founded in 2001, Tiger offers gas analyzers, as well as atmospheric and cleanroom monitors based on Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (“CRDS”) technology, a breakthrough discovery by Professor Kevin Lehmann, Ph.D., of Princeton University. Tiger Optics is headquartered in Warrington, PA in the Philadelphia suburbs. From the cleanest of semiconductor fabs to the harshest coal-fired power plants, Tiger analyzers work to improve yields, reduce costs, and simplify regulatory compliance. For more information, visit www.tigeroptics.com.

About Process Insights

The companies of Process Insights manufacture instruments focused on process analytics, control, and safety. Process Insights premium brands are used across a wide range of applications and end markets to ensure safe operation, increase product quality and to attain higher levels of efficiency in process industries. Sensors, instrumentation, and software used in these applications are mission-critical to reduce disruptions, downtime, and lost productivity, all while managing increasing regulatory complexity and cost in industrial processes. For more information, visit www.process-insights.com.

About Union Park Capital

Union Park Capital is a private equity firm solely focused on lower middle-market industrial technology companies. Union Park takes a long-term perspective to help stakeholders build value over time, and drives value creation through profitably growing a business, not financial engineering. Union Park Capital is based in Boston, MA and has extensive investments and expertise in the analytical instrumentation sector. To learn more, visit www.union-park.com.

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