TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Online NMR and Raman Spectroscopy – Combination of PAT tools for Process Monitoring N2 - Improvement in deep process understanding is a mandatory prerequisite for the application of modern concepts like Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or “Industrie 4.0”. The direct hyphenation with online methods of process analytical technology (PAT) allows profound insights into the actual reactions within chemical and pharmaceutical production steps and provides necessary information for associated advanced control strategies. While the industrial application of online Raman spectroscopy has already been successfully demonstrated, low-field NMR spectroscopy is not yet adequately developed as a robust online method for use in process industry. The high information content combined with the low calibration effort makes NMR spectroscopy a highly promising method for modern process automation with a high flexibility due to short set-up times and novel calibration concepts. This is a major advantage compared to other analytical methods, especially regarding multi-purpose plant strategies, as well as processes suffering from fluctuating quality of raw materials. The work presented here focusses on the heterogeneous catalyzed hydrogenation of 2-butyne-1,4-diol, as a step of the synthesis of industrially important solvent tetrahydrofuran. This reaction is proceeding via an intermediate product and suffers from competitive reaction paths. In this application, online NMR and Raman spectroscopy were combined with data from classical process sensors, e.g., pressure, temperature, and flow transducers in a highly automated setup for the development of innovative control concepts. T2 - Quantitative NMR Methods for Reaction and Process Monitoring (NMRPM) CY - Kaiserslautern, Germany DA - 31.01.2019 KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Hydrogenation KW - Compact NMR Spectroscopy KW - Online-NMR spectroscopy PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47310 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Interlaboratory comparison of low-field NMR spectrometers – Purities at 200 and 10 mmol/L - Preliminary results N2 - Due to its advantages of being a direct comparison method, quantitative NMR spectroscopy (qNMR) becomes more and more popular in industry. While conventional high-field NMR systems are often associated with high investment and operational costs, the upcoming market of permanent-magnet based benchtop NMR systems show a considerable option for a lot of applications. The mobility of these systems allows to bring them more closely to the real production environment, e.g. for at-line quality control. In this work we present an interlaboratory comparison study investigating the qNMR performance of state-of-the-art benchtop NMR spectrometers. Therefore, BAM prepared two samples of a mixture of NMR reference standards tetramethylbenzene (TMB) and tetrachloronitrobenzene (TCNB) at concentration levels of 200 mM and 10 mM. These “ready-to-use” samples were sent to participant laboratories, which performed analysis on their benchtop NMR equipment of different vendors and fields from 43 to 80 MHz. Raw data was reported back and further investigated by using different data analysis methods at BAM. After this very first qNMR comparison study of benchtop NMR spectrometers show promising results, following studies are planned to cover more parts of the qNMR process, e.g. sample preparation and weighing, but also data analysis, as commonly done in similar studies for high-field NMR spectroscopy in industry and metrology. T2 - ANAKON 2019 CY - Münster, Germany DA - 25.03.2019 KW - qNMR KW - Benchtop NMR KW - Interlaboratory Comparison PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-47662 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - 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 ground lyophilized cell loadings ranging from 20 to 120 g/L. The reproducibility and reliability of compact NMR spectroscopy closely matched with 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 - 20. Herbstkolloquium Arbeitskreis Prozessanalytik CY - Frankfurt am Main, Germany DA - 03.12.2025 KW - Polyhydroxyalkanoate KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Downstream processing KW - Benchtop-NMR PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-65065 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Guhl, Svetlana A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Process monitoring of an intensified continuous production unit with compact NMR spectroscopy N2 - Monitoring chemical reactions is the key to chemical process control. Today, mainly optical online methods are applied. NMR spectroscopy has a high potential for direct loop process control. Compact NMR instruments based on permanent magnets are robust and relatively inexpensive analyzers, which feature advantages like low cost, low maintenance, ease of use, and cryogen-free operation. Instruments for online NMR measurements equipped with a flow-through cell, possessing a good signal-to-noise-ratio, sufficient robustness, and meeting the requirements for integration into industrial plants (i.e., explosion safety and fully automated data analysis) are currently not available off the rack. Recently, promising benchtop NMR instruments with acceptable performance came to market and process integrated sensors developed on basis of such laboratory instruments are on their way. Intensified continuous processes are in focus of current research. Compared to traditional batch processes, these are giving admittance to new and difficult to produce compounds, leading to better product uniformity, and dras-tically reducing the consumption of raw materials and energy. Flexible (modular) chemical plants can produce different products using the same equipment with short down-times between campaigns, and quick introduction of new products to the market. Typically, such plants have smaller scale than big size facilities for production of basic chemicals but are still capable to produce kilograms to tons of specialty products each day. Such flexible (modular) plants can be provided in the size of 20 ft freight containers and represent a promising approach by their ability of easy transfer to production sites as well as the possibility of increasing production capacity by a simple numbering-up-approach. However, full automation is a prerequisite to realize such benefits of intensified continuous production. In continu-ous flow processes steady automated measurements and tight closed-loop control of the product quality are mandatory. If these are not available, there is a huge risk of producing large amounts of out-of-spec (OOS) prod-ucts. This is addressed in the European Union’s Research Project CONSENS (Integrated Control and Sensing) by development and integration of smart sensor modules for process monitoring and control within such modular plant setups. T2 - 12. Kolloquium des Arbeitskreises Prozessanalytik CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 28.11.2016 KW - Low field NMR spectroscopy KW - Modular production units KW - Online NMR spectroscopy PY - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-385628 AN - OPUS4-38562 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Guhl, Svetlana A1 - Meyer, Klas A1 - Kern, Simon T1 - Process monitoring of an intensified continuous production unit with compact NMR spectroscopy N2 - Monitoring chemical reactions is the key to chemical process control. Today, mainly optical online methods are applied. NMR spectroscopy has a high potential for direct loop process control. Compact NMR instruments based on permanent magnets are robust and inexpensive analysers, which feature advantages like low maintenance, ease of use, and cryogen-free operation. Instruments for online NMR measurements equipped with a flow-through cell, possessing a good signal-to-noise-ratio, robustness, and meeting the requirements for integration into industrial plants (i.e., explosion safety and fully automated data analysis) are currently not available off the rack. Intensified continuous processes are in focus of current research. Flexible (modular) chemical plants can produce different products using the same equipment with short down-times between campaigns and quick introduction of new products to the market. In continuous flow processes online sensor data and tight closed-loop control of the product quality are mandatory. Otherwise there is a huge risk of producing large amounts of out-of-spec (OOS) products. This is addressed in the European Union’s Research Project CONSENS by development and integration of smart sensor modules for process monitoring and control within such modular plant setups. The presented NMR module is provided in an explosion proof housing with a module size of 57 x 57 x 85 cm and involves a compact 43.5 MHz NMR spectrometer together with an acquisition unit and a programmable logic controller for automated data preparation (phasing, baseline correction) and evaluation. Indirect Hard Modeling (IHM) was selected for data analysis of the low-field NMR spectra. A set-up for monitoring continuous reactions in a thermostated 1/8” tubular reactor using automated syringe pumps was used to validate the IHM models by using high-field NMR spectroscopy as analytical reference method. T2 - Workshop for Process Industry - Tackling the Future of Plant Operation CY - Frankfurt am Main, Germany DA - 25.01.2017 KW - Online NMR spectroscopy KW - Process analytical technology KW - Prozessanalytik KW - Process control KW - CONSENS PY - 2017 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-391386 AN - OPUS4-39138 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Meyer, Klas T1 - Benchtop-NMR Spectroscopy as a PAT tool in industrial environments – Field integration of a laboratory instrument N2 - Chemical industry is currently in a rapidly changing environment, e.g., due to variability of raw material quality, high energy costs and demand for improving efficiency. Process optimization and new process concepts become more and more important. Flexible 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 “real-time” 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 powerful 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 enhanced 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 pharma-ceuticals and therefore help to reduce the time-to-market. T2 - Analytica Conference 2026 CY - Munich, Germany DA - 24.03.2026 KW - Benchtop NMR spectroscopy KW - Process Analytical Technology KW - Field integration KW - Explosion safety PY - 2026 AN - OPUS4-65771 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -