October 2019, Vol. 246, No. 10
Tech Notes
Clariant Opens Industry’s First HTE Laboratory
Clariant opened its next high-throughput experimentation (HTE) laboratory Sept. 5 in Houston.
This lab is part of a global Clariant initiative to expand HTE capabilities to all of its business units, including direct support for oil services in North America, the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, Africa and the North Sea.
HTE is an innovative approach and methodology in which automated instrumentation, specialized software tools and alternative techniques are able to provide optimized formulations in a rapid timeframe. While it has been widely used in other industries for many years, Clariant is the first company to adopt this technology for the oil and gas industry as a standard tool.
With the new equipment in the lab Clariant said its researchers can identify new formulations and synergistic blends for specific customer crudes, ultimately reducing the time to market for new products.
“Static environments, like factory assembly lines, are easy to automate. In contrast, an R&D environment requires a special solution to keep pace with its dynamic nature,” said Lucius Kemp, Clariant’s global head of High Throughput Experimentation, Group Technology and Innovation. “One must have a highly flexible concept with very short integration times to reach automated efficiency. As a global leader in the field, we have designed our HTE lab with ‘standardized flexibility’ to achieve this.”
The HTE lab opening comes after significant investment at Clariant’s Midland, Texas and Clinton, Oklahoma facilities, putting the company at the forefront of solutions to market needs, and further highlighting its commitment to grow with US and global customers. P&GJ
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