Context

All materials along the process chains of thermochemical conversions are analysed in the laboratory. The analyses are carried out in accordance with standards (DIN, ISO, ASTM), based on standards or, for special issues, beyond standards.

• Source materials - coals, biomasses, residues (waste, sewage sludge, digestate, GFRP, CFRP, etc.)
• Intermediate products - coke, oils, gases and other materials.etc.)
• Intermediate products - coke, oils, gases
• Final products - ash, slag, coke, oils, gases, water
• In addition, materials from technical installations are analysed, e.g. refractory ceramics.e.g. refractory ceramics.

Typical tasks

• Determination of the composition of solid and liquid fuels: Organic (Immediate and elemental analysis), inorganic (XRF, RDA, ICP-OES)
• Combustion and calorific value determination
• High-temperature behaviour of ashes and slags (ASV, RDA, viscometry)
• Liquid analysis (ion chromatography, density measurement, viscometry)
• Determination of geometric parameters: Particle size distribution, porosity, internal surface area
• Optical and analytical evaluation of solid samples (light microscopy, electron microscopy)

Methods and devices

Sample Preparation Lab

• Sieve analysis
• Camsizers (particle size distribution)
• Sample dividers
• Mills (cutting mill, impact mill, ultracentrifugal mill, freezer mill)
• Tablet/pellet press
• high-temperature microwave pressure digestion
   

Solid Feedstock Lab

• ETV-ICP OES - electrothermal vaporisation - inductive coupled plasma - atomic emission spectroscopy for multielement-analysis, temperature
• dependent element release in combination with elemental speciation
• Elemental (ultimate) analyser (for solids and liquids)
• Combustion calorimeter (for solids and liquids)
• Karl-Fischer titrator (for solids and liquids)
• Direct mercury analyser (for solids and liquids)
• Coke reactivity index (CRI) and coke strength after reaction (CSR)
• Dilatometer (high temperature/Ruhr)
• Gieseler plastometer 
   

Pore Structure and Adsorption Lab

• Surface area measurement (N₂ and CO₂ isothermes)
• Mercury porosimetry
• Helium pycnometry
• Density measurement
• Adsorption test facility for Hg and SO₂

Gas and Liquid Lab

• Gas chromatography (various micro gas chromatographs with different columns and detectors)
• Ion chromatography
• GCxGC-TOF-MS with pyrolyser
• GC-FID with headspace sampler
• ICP-OES
• Viscometer (temperature controlled up to 200 °C)
• Density measurement
• DHA with SimDist

Ash/Slag Lab

• Plasma ashing device
• X-ray fluorescence analysis: XRF
• X-ray diffractometry XRD with in-situ temperature/pressure chambers
• Electron microscopy (SEM, FIB-SEM)
• Thermo-optical measurement systems for surface tension and characteristic ash melting temperatures (TOMAC, TOMMI)
• High-temperature slag viscometers
• Leitz heating microscope (LEM) for investigations of ash melting behaviour (oxidizing or reducing atmosphere)

Thermal Analysis Lab

• Thermogravimetry (TG) for ambient & elevated pressure (up to 100 bar)
• Differential thermo-analysis (DTA)
• Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
• Simultaneous analysis coupled with mass spectroscopy: TG-DTA-MS, TG-DSC-MS

Dr. rer. nat. Marcus Schreiner
Laboratory Manager
+49 3731 39-4520
Marcus [dot] Schreiner@iec [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de [at] iec [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de (Marcus[dot]Schreiner[at]iec[dot]tu-freiberg[dot]de)

Dr. rer. nat. Anja Guhl
Deputy Laboratory Manager
+49 3731 39-4514
Anja [dot] Guhl@iec [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de [at] iec [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de (Anja[dot]Guhl[at]iec[dot]tu-freiberg[dot]de)