Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has opened its next High Throughput Experimentation (HTE) laboratory in Houston, Tex. The location is key as the new facility will be the first of its kind supporting the oil & gas industry, offering new and sophisticated solutions for customers. This lab is part of a global Clariant initiative to expand HTE capabilities to all Clariant 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 where 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 & Gas industry as a standard tool.
“This is an exciting, and unique, new offering for the Oil & Gas industry, and, being in such close proximity to so many customers, means that we can offer superior, faster service,” said Jonathan Wylde, Head of Innovation and Application Development Clariant Oil and Mining Services. “With our state-of-the-art equipment in the lab, advanced research concepts, and potential customization for specific projects, our researchers are now able to identify new formulations and synergistic blends for specific customer crudes, ultimately reducing the time to market for new products.”
As a new addition to the existing lab located at Clariant Oil Services Headquarters, Clariant specialist chemists and innovation experts are now able to utilize miniaturization, parallelization, intelligent design and enhanced analytics – all proven to increase efficiency and productivity. The facility will help to meet current and outstanding needs in the Oil & Gas industry, with special emphasis on pour point depressants, hydrate inhibitors, asphaltene inhibitors, corrosion inhibitors and scale inhibitors.
“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.