The new Sci-Q 323 pump: getting all the right reactions

Petrochem Carless, a leading distributor and manufacturer in the petrochemical industry has been among the first to use one of the new Sci-Q 323 peristaltic pumps from Watson-Marlow Bredel Pumps, in the laboratory development of new processes at its Harwich refinery. The pump was chosen primarily because of its stable and precisely controllable flow.

The application tests the performance of catalysts used in chemical reactions with the 323 pump, and between two and five pumpheads (to perform separate simultaneous experiments), pumping a solvent at a measured rate from 200 litre drums, through heat exchangers and columns of catalyst-coated resin beads and back into other drums.

Although similar procedures had been carried out at Petrochem Carless for many years, the company only recently changed from piston pumps to the Watson-Marlow Bredel pump. Guy Nelson, development laboratory manager in charge of the development work, now wishes he had made the change much earlier, saying: "We did have one Watson-Marlow Bredel pump in the lab which dated back to 1974. It still works very well, which is testament to the build quality, but it did not have the range of controls that we need in this application and I had not realised just how much development had gone on in recent years. Now that we have rediscovered peristaltic pumps they will be our first port of call in future applications."