PEFTEC 2019 – new venue, more topics and bigger!

Environmental emissions will represent a common thread in many of the presentations at

PEFTEC 2019, which will take place on 22nd and 23rd May at the Rotterdam Ahoy exhibition centre in the Netherlands. This will be the 3rd international conference and exhibition on testing and monitoring in oil, petrochemical, refining and environmental applications.

Previous events were located in Antwerp, but organiser Marcus Pattison says: “PEFTEC 2019 will be the best event yet - Rotterdam Ahoy is a vibrant, fresh facility, located at the heart of one of the world’s major petrochemical hubs with superb transport links, and with expanded conferences and a larger exhibition, there will be more reasons than ever to visit.”
PEFTEC 2019 (www.peftec.com) is a specialist event focusing on the testing, analysis and monitoring of gas, downstream oil products, chemicals and petrochemicals, including emissions to air and water. With a comprehensive programme of conferences, seminars and an international exhibition, it will provide the latest guidance on regulations, methods, standards and technologies for analytical chemists, process scientists, researchers, academics, process operators, regulators, consultants, laboratory personnel and environmental managers.
PEFTEC 2019 has been expanded to include a full Process Analysis Conference, as well as the hugely popular Analytical Conference. The Conferences and a full programme of Seminars, will provide the latest information on monitoring and control, regulations, standards, methods, technologies and analytical techniques, in addition to case studies and reports on current research. In addition, both conferences will merge at the beginning of the second day for a joint session on ‘Big Data/Big Analysis’.

PEFTEC Analytical Conference
(22nd and 23rd May)
The morning session of the first day will focus on the latest developments in mass spec applications and will feature an opening plenary by one of the fathers of Petroleomics and Director of the Future Fuels Institute at Florida State University, Ryan P. Rodgers who will be followed by other leading researchers in this rapidly growing field. The afternoon presentations will cover recent developments in GC and GCxGC applications with a range of detection systems including the barrier ionisation discharge detector, MS and VUV spectroscopy.
The Analytical and Process monitoring conferences will merge at the beginning of the second day to address the hot topic of ‘Big Data and Big Analysis’ with a plenary by Eric Little, the Chief Data Officer of Osthus, which will be followed by talks on specific applications of data analytics in both the laboratory and process analysis applications. The analytical conference will then continue with talks on the re-emergence of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography as a mainstream analytical technique and the afternoon sessions cover the application of both molecular and atomic spectroscopic techniques for petro industry related analysis.

PEFTEC Process Monitoring Conference (22nd and 23rd May)
The first day will begin with a plenary lecture on the latest developments in process monitoring by Alison Nordon from the Centre for Process Analysis and Control Technology (CPACT). This will be followed by sessions featuring a wide variety of monitoring techniques including OFCEAS spectroscopy and low pressure sampling, carrier-gas-free GC, micro GC, gas chromatography – vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy, laser technology for C1 to C5, online micro GC and remote sensing. Sessions will also cover biogas impurities and combustion optimisation.
As with the analytical conference, the second day will commence with a plenary by Eric Little on ‘Big Data and Big Analysis’, mentioned above. Subsequent speakers will discuss gas leak detection, real-time event monitoring, the calibration of process spectrometers, the use of FTIR as a universal concentration meter, online analysis of sulphur compounds, TOC in brine, and on-line elemental analysis. The final presentation will address the application of the on-line liquid injector valve system for non-discriminating analysis of condensate and liquids by GC.

PEFTEC Exhibition
(22nd and 23rd May)
The new larger Exhibition will provide access to innovation from over 250 world-leading companies, many of which will be delivering technical seminars during the event – see www.peftec.com for details.
The exhibition will offer an ideal opportunity to not just see the latest technologies, but to discuss them with experts and meet with potential suppliers. This is particularly important because face to face meetings provide an opportunity to build trust, and exhibition visitors frequently remark that they found something they didn’t know they were looking for.

New products and technologies at PEFTEC 2019
FLIR will demonstrate its first uncooled methane gas detection camera, which it says is roughly half the price of cooled gas cameras. GAS - Global Analyser Solutions provides a fast, robust GC and will announce a new temperature programmable oven for analysing a wide range of components up to C20, as well as an onboard thermal desorption module for ppb/ppt level analysis.
LAR Process Analysers AG, will present two major new TOC analysers; the QuickTOCtrace for ultra-pure water applications and the QuickTOCultra for complex water.Visitors to the Optimus stand will be able to learn about the brand new ElemeNtS total elemental combustion analyser, and anyone with an interest in mercury analysis/monitoring may wish to visit to the P S Analytical stand which will provide experts offering help and advice.
XOS will showcase the recently-released Petra MAX Autosampler, which is designed to improve workflow and efficiency over traditional carousel automatic sampler systems.

Industrial Methane Measurement (IMM) Conference
(22nd and 23rd May)
A conference addressing the measurement of methane emissions will run alongside the PEFTEC event, and delegates from both events will have access to the PEFTEC exhibition, providing an opportunity to see the latest technologies for monitoring methane in fugitive, vented and partially combusted emissions from the world’s leading test and measurement equipment manufacturers.
Methane is an important Greenhouse Gas (GHG), absorbing significantly more energy than carbon dioxide, so it performs a significant role in global warming. However, methane is less persistent in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so methane reduction efforts are likely to have faster effects.
Atmospheric methane concentrations rose from 2006 to 2016 following a previous decade of near-constant concentrations, so there is serious concern about the sources of this increase and also with the monitoring methods. The methane measurement conference was therefore created to provide an opportunity for experts from around the world to share their experiences in the detection, monitoring and mitigation/prevention of methane emissions.
The conference themes were developed by the event’s scientific committee which includes internationally respected academics and researchers from NPL (UK), Environmental Defense Fund (USA), Royal Holloway University of London, Utrecht University (Netherlands), DBFZ (Germany), Sigma Space Corporation (USA) and TOTAL (France).
A keynote session will be delivered by Stéphan Plisson-Sauné from OGCI (oil and gas climate initiative), and a further keynote will be delivered by a speaker from EDF (Environmental Defense Fund) on ‘MethaneSAT for mapping global oil and gas methane emissions to accelerate mitigation’. The speakers are drawn from academic and research institutions from around the world, as well as regulators, energy companies and instrument developers.
The first session of the conference will cover current understanding, regulation and policy, and this will be followed by presentations on current capabilities and case studies, including methane emissions from biogas plants.
The first session on day two is titled: ‘Demonstration & Validation of Technologies’ and will include a range of talks; from the validation of controlled release studies, to the demonstration of portable cavity ring-down spectrometers. The final session will focus on emerging technologies for methane monitoring, and will include methane monitoring using drones, methane emissions quantification using satellite observations, and quantitative optical gas imaging.

PEFTEC 2019 and IMM 2019 – register now!
Entry to the PEFTEC Exhibition and Seminar programme is free of charge for those that pre-register at www.peftec.com. The cost of admission to the IMM and PEFTEC Conferences is €125/day + VAT, or €200 + VAT for both days.
The IMM conference will be of significant interest to anyone involved with the measurement or management of GHG emissions, particularly if they are fugitive, vented, leaked, spilled or emitted from an industrial process. Similarly, PEFTEC 2019 is an essential event for anyone involved with analytical chemistry, quality control, research, process development and control within the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. The conferences and seminars will provide the latest information from global experts, and the exhibition represents an ideal opportunity to meet existing and prospective instrumentation and service providers – all under one roof and at the same time.
A packed programme is in place and the organisers look forward to welcoming you to Rotterdam!