Compact, yet powerful new GC provides speed and efficiency to labs in the fuels and energy sectors

The new Brevis GC-2050 is Shimadzu’s latest innovation developed and designed to boost precision in gas chromatography, while concurrently addressing laboratories’ space constraints. This new analyser offers a pragmatic response to the constant challenge of optimizing workspace usage.

Laboratories in the fuel and refining sectors undergo spaces substantial investment and operational costs to achieve optimal efficiency in the space available. The Shimadzu Brevis GC-2050 takes on this financial and spatial challenge by providing a compact solution, combining analytical precision with spatial economy. The instrument's compact footprint helps streamline operational efficiency within limited lab bench space. The predicament of constrained bench space often curtails researchers' ability to conduct simultaneous analyses. The Brevis GC-2050 circumvents this limitation thanks to its compact dimensions, which permit multiple units to be placed on a conventional laboratory table, enabling the simultaneous operation of two analytical lines, each equipped with standard capillary columns, thereby facilitating a more efficient workflow.

Building upon the proven methodologies of its predecessor, the GC-2030, the Brevis GC-2050 maintains consistency in sample injection, detection techniques, and gas control. While the inclusion of a colour touchscreen interface, also a feature of the GC-2030, is extraneous for routine procedures, its use becomes apparent during maintenance and troubleshooting activities. The addition of enhanced connectivity options, operating in conjunction with MS-Windows-compatible devices, further illustrates the instrument's adaptability, affording researchers the convenience of mobile monitoring.

Helium has historically held precedence as the carrier gas in gas chromatography, but its popularity has waned due to its limited supply and increasing costs. Shimadzu’s new analyser incorporates economising mechanisms; it manages gas flow, intelligently switching between gases and initiating automatic shutdowns during periods of inactivity, thus reducing resource wastage significantly, all without compromising analytical performance. Shimadzu’s Brevis GC-2050 features a user-centric software interface that enables operators to seamlessly choose alternative carrier gases such as hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, or argon. Robust and reliable gas leak detection technology ensures rapid mitigation of potential safety hazards. For heightened security, a dedicated hydrogen sensor option exists to pre-empt the build-up of hazardous hydrogen concentrations. The GC’s analytical intelligence feature provides an exceptional level of operational efficiency by simplifying maintenance procedures, predefined column conditioning, and shutdown/restart sequences, therefore enhancing productivity by reducing downtime.

The versatility and scalability of the new GC are further enhanced by its compatibility with various detectors and accessories, such as the SPL injector, FID, FPD, ECD, MS detector, among others. The analyser seamlessly integrates with Shimadzu's liquid autoinjectors and headspace samplers, expanding its analytical capabilities to cater to a wide range of research requirements. Compatibility with a variety of chromatography data software (CDS) platforms, including LabSolutions, ensures seamless integration into existing lab workflows, while ClickTek technology simplifies the process of capillary column exchange, further enhancing GC-2050’s user-friendliness.

Shimadzu’s new  Brevis GC-2050 bears testament to the company's heritage of delivering precision, operational savings, and space optimisation to hydrocarbon processing, refining, and petrochemical laboratories. The compact new GC helps researchers to optimise efficiency without compromising analytical performance, thereby expanding the functionality of high-performance gas chromatography.