TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - On-line monitoring of polyhydroxyalkanoate extraction process using compact NMR spectroscopy N2 - Portable benchtop NMR spectrometers enable real-time process and reaction monitoring in contrast to conventional laboratory based off-line gas chromatography or high-field NMR measurements. In this study, benchtop NMR spectroscopy is demonstrated as a process analytical technology (PAT) tool for the application of the solvent extraction step in downstream processing of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers. These are one of the few thermoplastic polymers synthesized 100 % via biotechnological routes which fully biodegrade in common natural environments. This makes them excellent candidate materials for sustainable replacement of conventional plastic materials. Online NMR experiments were conducted using a fully automated setup, employing commercially available PTFE tubing as a flow-cell assembly. Extraction was carried out in a thermostated stirred batch reactor in lab-scale. Single-scan NMR spectra allowed continuous monitoring of the extraction of the PHA copolymer poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate) containing 13.5 mol-% hydroxyhexanoate from Ralstonia eutropha biomass. Extractions were performed in chloroform and acetone across lyophilized cell loadings ranging from 20 to 120 g/L. The reproducibility and reliability of compact NMR spectroscopy closely matched that of parallel high-field NMR measurements. A strong correlation was observed between online low-field NMR data and offline gas chromatography (GC) analysis. The study highlights the versatility of compact NMR for process monitoring, facilitating endpoint determination and enhancing extraction efficiency by optimizing process parameters. Steady-state conditions were achieved within 6 to 10 minutes for chloroform and acetone, respectively, underscoring the method’s value in supporting downstream process development and optimization for PHA recovery. T2 - qNMR Summit Europe 2025 CY - Bari, Italy DA - 19.11.2025 KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - Extraction KW - Downstream processing KW - Benchtop-NMR PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-64920 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Deconvolution in High-Field- and Benchtop-NMR applications N2 - Numerical "sum integration" is the typical way to extract signal area from NMR spectra for quantitative evaluation, however, in complex situations of peak overlaps or crowded spectra this can be impractical. Deconvolution methods based on linefitting and optimization allow for a more accurate extraction of signal features from the spectrum in these cases. The increasing number of benchtop NMR applications showing lower signal dispersion and therefore more often complex spectral patterns foster the development and application of model-based spectra evaluation methods. This includes techniques like Indirect Hard Modeling (IHM), Quantum-Mechanical Spectra Analysis (QMSA), Chemometric modeling like PLS-R or MCR, as well as Machine-learning approaches using Neural Networks. This presentation gives an overview and introduction into deconvolution methods in the context of high-field and benchtop-NMR applications in complex spectra and process monitoring. T2 - CCQM OAWG/PAWG Advances in qNMR Workshop CY - Sèvres, France DA - 08.04.2025 KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Deconvolution KW - Benchtop-NMR PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62956 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - NMR Spectroscopy as a PAT tool: Field integration of a laboratory instrument N2 - Companies of chemical industry find themselves more often in a rapidly changing environment, e.g., due to variability of raw material quality or energy costs and efficiency. Process optimization and new process concepts become more and more important. Flexible and modular chemical plants can produce various high-quality products using multi-purpose equipment with short downtimes between campaigns and reduce time to market for new products. Intensified continuous production plants allow for difficult to produce compounds like exothermic reactions with high heat dissipation. Highly automated chemical process monitoring along with real-time quality control are prerequisites to such concepts and, thus, should be based on chemical information. A commercially available benchtop NMR spectrometer was integrated to the full requirements of an automated chemical production environment such as explosion safety, field communication, and robust evaluation of sensor data. Field studies in modular and conventional production plant setups show promising results gaining process knowledge for further optimization. NMR spectroscopy appeared as preeminent online analytical method and allows using a modular data analysis approach, which can even serve as reliable reference method for further calibration-dependent PAT applications (e.g., NIR or Raman spectroscopy). Based on experiences from earlier field studies an improved field enclosure setup was developed and built, including the option of a secondary analytical method (e.g., optical spectroscopy). Integrated control systems allow for a flexible implementation based on the available automation infrastructure at the chemical plant or pilot plant setup. In the future, modular interconnecting “smart” PAT systems and process equipment have the potential speed up the setup of production equipment for chemicals and pharmaceuticals and therefore help to reduce the time-to-market. T2 - ANAKON 2025 CY - Leipzig, Germany DA - 10.03.2025 KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Field Integration KW - Benchtop-NMR PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-62744 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Low-Field NMR Spectroscopy on Solid Dispersions – A Flow Injection Method for End-Point Control of Azo Couplings for Industrial Pigment Production N2 - Global demand for pigments is expected to increase to around 13.4 million tons per year by 2030, representing approximately $22 billion – 5 % of which will be azo pigments as the main organic pigments. Azo pigments, i.e., especially the azo bridge required for them, are almost exclusively produced in technology by azo coupling reactions in large-scale approaches on the scale of 50–100 cubic meters. Among other things, one of the reasons why large-scale production itself is still essentially discontinuous is the lack of analytical methods for a continuous process control. In an azo coupling process, an aromatic amine is diazotized to form the diazonium compound (diazo compound), which reacts with a coupling component, i.e., "couples". A slight excess of the coupler is desired for the end of the reaction, which stoichiometrically consumes the remaining (harmful) diazo compound, i.e., below 500 ppm. This is carried out with a manual spotting reaction of a fast-binding reagent. To carry out continuous azo coupling, care must be taken to ensure that the actual coupling reaction proceeds as rapidly as possible, i.e., preferentially, compared with possible side reactions. Reliable measuring methods are thus a decisive criterion for the useful performance of a continuous azo pigment synthesis. An analytical online procedure is difficult due to several limitations at once: solid dispersions extremely limit the range of reproducible analytical procedures. In addition, the appearance of a signal (e.g., excess of a starting material) in the ppm range must be reliably detected within the matrix background. A proposal based on a back-titration method and benchtop NMR spectroscopy were used to overcome these problems. We present a feasibility study for a suitable process analysis with benchtop NMR spectroscopy on disperse systems for equimolar dosing of the "diazotization" or "coupling" sub-step in azo coupling. This could potentially replace tedious manual spotting reactions in conventional discontinuous production and paves the way for continuous production. T2 - 19. Kolloquium AK Prozessanalytik CY - Darmstadt, Germany DA - 04.12.2024 KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Azo-Pigments KW - Benchtop-NMR PY - 2024 AN - OPUS4-62176 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kern, Simon A1 - Wander, Lukas A1 - Meyer, Klas A1 - Guhl, Svetlana A1 - Gottu Mukkula, A. R. A1 - Holtkamp, M. A1 - Salge, M. A1 - Fleischer, C. A1 - Weber, N. A1 - Engell, S. A1 - Paul, Andrea A1 - Pereira Remelhe, M. A1 - Maiwald, Michael T1 - Flexible automation with compact NMR spectroscopy for continuous production of pharmaceuticals N2 - Modular plants using intensified continuous processes represent an appealing concept for the production of pharmaceuticals. It can improve quality, safety, sustainability, and profitability compared to batch processes; besides, it enables plug-and-produce reconfiguration for fast product changes. To facilitate this flexibility by real-time quality control, we developed a solution that can be adapted quickly to new processes and is based on a compact nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. The NMR sensor is a benchtop device enhanced to the requirements of automated chemical production including robust evaluation of sensor data. Beyond monitoring the product quality, online NMR data was used in a new iterative optimization approach to maximize the plant profit and served as a reliable reference for the calibration of a near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer. The overall approach was demonstrated on a commercial-scale pilot plant using a metal-organic reaction with pharmaceutical relevance. KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - NIR Spectroscopy KW - Real-time process monitoring KW - Real-time quality control KW - Continuous processes KW - CONSENS KW - Data Fusion PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-480623 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-019-01752-y SN - 1618-2642 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 411 IS - 14 SP - 3037 EP - 3046 PB - Springer Nature CY - Heidelberg AN - OPUS4-48062 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Already Producing or Still Calibrating? – Advances of Model-Based Automation for Online NMR Spectroscopy N2 - The transition from the current automation landscape to next generation automation concepts for the process industry has already begun. Smart functions of sensors simplify their use and enable plug-and-play integration, even though they may appear to be more complex at first sight. Monitoring specific information (i.e., “chemical” such as physico-chemical properties, chemical reactions, etc.) is the key to “chemical” process control. Here we introduce our smart online NMR sensor module provided in an explosion proof housing as example. Due to NMR spectroscopy as an “absolute comparison method”, independent of the matrix, it runs with very short set-up times in combination with “modular” spectral models. These are based on pure component NMR spectra without the need for tedious calibrations runs. We present approaches from statistical, (i.e., Partial Least Squares Regression) to physically motivated models (i.e., Indirect Hard Modelling). Based on concentration measurements of reagents and products by the NMR analyser a continuous production and direct loop process control were successfully realized for several validation runs in a modular industrial pilot plant and compared to conventional analytical methods (HPLC, near infrared spectroscopy). The NMR analyser was developed for an intensified industrial process funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (“Integrated CONtrol and SENsing”, www.consens-spire.eu). T2 - 2nd Reaction Monitoring Symposium CY - Bath, UK DA - 28.01.2019 KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - NMR Spectroscopy KW - Modular Production PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47309 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -