Materials testing

Analytical Chemistry is a vital tool for research on sustainable energy , determination of emissions of installations and the development of new measurement techniques for energy related problems like greenhouse gases.

We are accredited by the Dutch Accreditation Council RvA under registrationnumber L135. Thereby ECN is certified against ISO 9001 as well as ISO 14001. Our fuel analyses are performed in compliance with the Best Practice List.

Next to the registrated analyses we also perform various other analyses like fuel analyses.

Chemical analysis

What is the elemental structure / composition of this fly ash?
How much hydrogen is present in this process gas?
How many heavy metals are found in this wastewater sample?
What is the carbon content of this wood sample?

For this kind of questions one may contact our research group Chemical Analysis as part of the ECN Clean Fossil Fuels.
The group Chemical Analysis works in close co-operation with the groups carrying out the programs of ECN Clean Fossil Fuels.

The group Chemical Analysis (CA) consists of specialized analytical chemists and a number of well-equipped laboratories where these questions are dealt with daily.
CA is divided into four service groups:

Spectro,
Wet Chemical,
Organic
Gas Analysis
Physical Characterization

The service group Spectro has at its disposal a number of optical technologies for the determination of metal concentrations within a large range of samples.
The service group Wet Chemical is equipped with instrumentation for the characterization of fuels and has also automated measurement instruments for the analysis of watery solutions.
The service group Organics uses amongst others a very complete configuration of a GC-MS set-up and a HPLC set-up equipped with Diode Array and Fluorescence Detection.
The service group Gas Analysis is our flying squad specialized in measuring gas concentrations in pilot test installations mostly on-line.

For the management of analysisdata we are using a LIMS-system. Large amounts of analysisresults can also be reported as an Excel-file.

Our knowledge can be used for the performance of feasibility studies and in most cases we have the answer to your questions about sensor systems.

Fuel and Ash Analysis

ECN has an ample experience of more than 15 years with analysis of a wide range of fuels like coal, biomass, secundary fuels and waste treatment ( also visit ECN Biomass).

Plasmatorch ICP Metal analysis

Measurement of Proximate (ash, volatile, liquid), Ultimate (C, H, N, O, S, Cl, F, heat of combustion, metals) takes place by the Best Practice List (as formulated by KEMA, BTG and ECN) and by Sterlab Quality Certificate.

The application of ash as raw material or building material is determined by the chemical composition and leaching behavior. In this field of leaching characterization of waste materials ECN can be considered as one of the leading institutes in the field of fundamental research and practical applications.

Analysis of leaching behavior is carried out under AP04 certificate and in co-operation with the group Emissioncharacterisation & -Reduction

Gas Analysis

Mobile gasanalysis equipment

In order to guarantee optimal functioning our test equipment a lot has been invested in the development of on-line measurement of the main components of combustion gas (CO, H₂, CO₂, CH₄, O₂) and soot gas (CO, CO₂, SO₂, NO_x, C_xH_y, O₂). Furthermore, for the measurement of N₂, Ar, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, Benzene, toluene, xylenes, H₂S and COS micro GC's are available which carry out a complete analysis within 1 - 2 minutes.
For the determination of dust, liquid, trace gases like NH₃, HCl, HCN traditional technology is used. At the moment faster measurement technologies are being developed for these components.

ECN has at its disposal the knowledge and the facilities to develop measurement methods desired for other components. A number of measuring methods has been developed for the measurements of energy-related greenhouse gases like CH₄ and N₂O in the open air (group Airquality). At the moment we are working on an on-line method for the measurement of gaseous elements in processgasses (Na, K) and heavy metals in air (fine dust).

Organic Analysis

At the introduction of biomass-related conversion technologies like gasification the measurement and characterization of tar components has become an important part of our analytic work.

GC-MS Installation

Identification of tar components

Furthermore a lot of experience is available in measuring traces of organic compounds in open air (VOC en organo-S).

During the last years the interest in the use of miniaturised sensor systems is growing. Chemical Analysis (CA) is involved in a number of developments in this area. At ECN new developed sensorsystems can be tested under realistic conditions and we can give assistance in the development of a commercial product.

Method Development

To ECN, as a research institute, reliable standard analyses as well as innovative solutions for measurements on experimental set-ups, are of major interest. Everything is possible, but to us it is a challenge to provide our contractors with an optimum price/achievement ratio.
For an indication of prices and only in Dutch a pricelist of all our services is provided here.