10
LMS Issue 2 | 2014
News | International & Local
Anatech Welcomes New Staff
A
natech Instruments is happy to
welcome three new staff members
to their team.
Maxime Chalmers, who holds a BSc
Honours in Microbiology, recently joined
the sales team. The first 10 years of Maxime’s career was spent developing her
skills in the laboratory and were followed
by a very successful transition into sales.
She has a wide range of expertise and
experience in chemistry and microbiology, which will be utilised to sell the
extensive range of products that the
company has to offer. Maxime always
has her customer’s best interests at heart
and believes this has helped her to build
strong relationships with her customers.
We would like to also welcome
Corlien Bezuidenhoud. Corlien has been
appointed to fulfil a sales support function.
She obtained her BSc in Genetics and BSc
(Hons) in Chemical Pathology in 2002.
In her 12-year long love affair with
chromatography, she has had handson laboratory experience in forensic,
clinical and pesticide applications. As an
analytical scientist she understands the
frustrations and needs of her customers.
Corlien is energised by challenges and
her tenaciousness will not let her rest
until her challenges are overcome.
The third new staff member is Marinda
Engelbrecht. Marinda now holds a BSc
in Biochemistry and Human Physiology,
and an Honours degree in Pharmacology. Marinda’s portfolio will be split
between both marketing and sales. With
Marinda’s input, Anatech aims to have a
more focused approach to its marketing
activities, and to better communicate
with existing and potential customers.
Marinda will also be involved in external
and internal sales. Her four years of sales
experience will definitely be a benefit. Her
strong organisational skills and go-getter
personality will ensure ongoing success in
this very challenging position.
Anatech Instruments wish all their
new staff a happy, successful and sustained tenure with the company. ⚛
Grabner Instruments New Partnership
A
METEK Spectro SA is the new
exclusive partner for Grabner
Instruments’ products in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Spectro SA is a proven and wellestablished partner for the mining and
the petroleum industry in Africa. A large
percentage of their customers are also
Grabner Instruments customers. They
will now be able to extend their support
for their customers, by acting as a
one-stop shop for the complete range of
analytical and petrochemical analysers.
Located in Kempton Park, Spectro will
act as a future sales and support hub for
Grabner analysers.
“We share a common vision,” said
Oliver Sauer, Grabner Head of Marketing
and Sales.
“Our companies develop innovative
and high quality instruments, based on
a deep understanding of our customers’
needs. We want to provide world-class
service and support, which is why
Spectro is the ideal partner for us.” ⚛
In a characteristic methanol plant,
natural gas and water are converted to synthesis gas or syngas, which is comprised
of carbon monoxide, CO2 and H2. This
gas is then converted into methanol in a
high-pressure process using a catalyst that
is made of copper, zinc and aluminium.
After three full years of studying the
process of methanol production, the
researchers then began to search for
an appropriate catalyst for the reaction.
Through the use of a computerised
database and a technique known as
computational materials design, these
scientists finally found a catalyst in the
form of nickel-gallium.
The researchers have found that at
high temperatures, nickel-gallium produced more methanol than the conventional copper-zinc-aluminium catalyst,
and considerably less of the carbon
monoxide byproduct. The success of this
study will prove to create more interest
in the area of methanol production and
will eventually lead to a cleaner means of
synthesising this compound . ⚛
Clean Methanol
A
n international consortium of researchers was successful in using
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Hydrogen
(H2) to synthesise methanol. This breakthrough came through the discovery
of a novel nickel-gallium catalyst. This
new method could lead to a cleaner
and more cost effective way to produce
methanol. The researchers’ results were
published in the online edition of the
scientific j