Cargill improves lab safety with Precision

Cargill was founded in 1865 as a single grain warehouse in Iowa, U.S, and has since grown to become a global partner connecting people around the planet and across the agricultural supply chain.

We took some time to talk to Jack Sismour, a Project Engineer at Cargill, to get his thoughts on his lab’s Precision generator.

Typically, what is the focus of your GC analysis?

QA/QC for our epoxy resin manufacturing plant.

What PEAK Scientific generators do you have in your laboratory and what instrument(s) do they supply?

We have the full stack of Precision generators - H2, N2, Zero Air, and Compressor for our GCs.

Can you explain the safety benefits Precision has brought to your lab?

We’ve been able to reduce the amount of hydrogen stored in the lab at any given time, as well as the elimination of ergonomic issues with large storage tanks. Another benefit is that the continuous gas supply yields improved the availability of analytical processes.

What prompted you to choose a PEAK Precision hydrogen generator for your analysis?

We went with PEAK because we have other PEAK generators in labs within our company and they are trusted across the board.

What has been the key benefit of deploying PEAK's Precision for your analysis as opposed to your previous gas supply solution?

The biggest change has been the drastic improvement in overall lab safety by eliminating large tanks.

How would you describe your PEAK generator purchasing experience in terms of speed of response, ease of ordering, catering for your needs and timing of delivery?

One word: Excellent.

Would you recommend PEAK Scientific generators to other laboratories? If yes, what would be your main reason for recommendation?

Yes, it’s a straight-forward installation and the generators have a very operator friendly design.

For the safety conscious, there’s Precision

As Jack mentioned on more than one occasion, safety within the lab has greatly increased since they have removed hydrogen cylinders and introduced the Precision stack. This is one of the key benefits to deploying an in-house gas generator.

There are a number of safety features that are built into each of our PEAK generators to give you and your lab staff peace of mind as they work. These include:

• Internal leak checks on start-up
• External leak detection
• Pressure monitoring to prevent leaks and pressure build up
• Automatic cell shutdown at high pressure
• Audible/visual alarms

Many labs have concerns about using hydrogen for their GC due to the safety concerns around the gas, but many of these concerns are centered around the idea of the volume of hydrogen that would be stored in a cylinder as opposed to a hydrogen generator.

A 50 liter cylinder can hold roughly 9,000 liters of hydrogen, which is a huge volume of hydrogen to store in the lab. In a small lab, it may only take a release of 25% of this volume to reach the LEL which could result in disaster.

On the other hand, a PEAK gas generator will produce around 500cc/min of hydrogen so there is no bank of stored gas in the generator. This means that, even if the lab was hermetically sealed, it would take three days to reach the LEL.  

The evolution in GC gas

The Precision range has been our flagship GC gas range, but last year we introduced our new and improved Intura series of hydrogen, nitrogen and zero air gas generators.

Using proprietary technologies developed by PEAK’s world-class Research & Development team, Intura incorporates new approaches to gas purification along with tried and tested components from our LC-MS range to enhance the performance and reliability of the Intura range.

Providing the best quality GC carrier and detector gas supply we have ever produced, Intura is the cutting edge of lab gas supply for GC.

Intura delivers a reliable, round-the-clock gas supply with a low lifetime cost, delivering tangible value to your lab.