Interview with Dr. Pan Yi from the National Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology (NIMTT)

The National Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology (NIMTT), as a comprehensive national research institute integrating legal metrological technology institution, third-party calibration and inspection agency, testing technology and standard research institution, mainly carries out the research of national metrological primary standards, metrological verification and calibration, product inspection and testing as well as engineering testing and evaluation. NIMTT has established and preserved 38 national primary standard devices, 286 national metrology standards and more than 200 national reference materials involving chemical component measurement. It is the main technical institution participating in the construction of the national important physical quantity and national standard substance resource sharing service platforms, an important part of national quantity value transmission and traceability system, and a key contributor to ensuring the accuracy and uniformity of national quantity values.

The Institute of Chemistry, National Institute of Measurement and Testing Technology (Institute of Chemistry, NIMTT), as the secondary legal entity directly under NIMTT, specializes in the research of chemical testing technologies and metrological standards (reference materials), metrological verification/calibration and product inspection, and undertakes the quantity value transmission of instruments, metrology testing arbitration, product prototype testing and type evaluation in the national chemical field. As a secretariat unit, NIMTT has established the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Testing Equipment for Operation Safety Technology of Power-Driven Vehicles (SAC/TC364), National Technical Committee for Standardization of Biochemical Detection (SAC/TC387) as well as Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Analytical Method Work Group of Subcommittee 1 on National Technical Committee 206 on Gases (SAC/TC206/SC1/WG1), been committed to the standardization in the field of gas analysis and testing, presided over and participated in drafting a number of national standards on gas analysis and related national standards on the environmental field and natural gas field, and participated in the technology transfer of ISO/ TC158 Analysis of gases and the drafting of international standards.

The Institute of Chemistry, NIMTT, relying on the strong scientific research ability and excellent scientific research team, has made fruitful achievements in scientific research on “national chemical reference materials” close to the technical issues of testing and standards urgently needed by the industry.

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In particularly, its research achievements in trace multi-component VOCs and sulfide gas reference materials have reached the international advanced level and the products are fully self-made, ensuring the quality safety and traceability of the testing data of relevant components. Meanwhile, NIMTT also provides professional customized technology services according to the requirements of the enterprises and public institutions in the fields of environmental monitoring, petrochemical engineering, public security, fair trade and instrument R&D. NIMTT has established the key laboratory for natural gas quality control and energy measurement of CNPC jointly with China National Petroleum Research Institute to prompt the natural gas quality control and energy measurement in China; closely cooperated with CRAES and CNEMC to provide technical support of analysis and testing for environmental monitoring in China.

What Shimadzu instruments do you use in your work and for what application?

At present, the anaytical instruments of Shimadzu are mainly used in the daily work of NIMTT in the following aspects:

1. Quality control of reference materials and development of analytical methods for scientific research projects.
2. Validation of national standards for gas analysis (provide validation and application demonstration for the development and revision of the national standards for gas analytical methods in the industries of industrial gas, ambient air, hydrogen energy, natural gas and coal chemical);
3. Development and revision of national or local analytical instrument verification regulations or calibration specifications in urgent need.

Why did the NIMTT choose Shimadzu as their partner?

First, we all share the same working concept and goals. Shimadzu, since its establishment in 1875, has always adhered to the corporate philosophy “Contributing to Society through Science and Technology”, continued study the science and technology leading the times and meeting social needs, developed and produced products with high added value for the society. NIMTT, as a comprehensive national institute of testing technology, is also committed to the development and establishment of the most of chromatography, mass spectrometry and spectroscopy of Shimadzu. It may establish the
world’s advanced integrated solutions of gas sample analysis for the industries such as environmental monitoring and petroleum gas chemical industry in China to solve the key testing technological problems urgently needed for the development of these industries.

How did the Shimadzu GC-SCD contribute to the NIMTT?

GC-SCD method is widely used in industrial gas, hydrogen energy, coal chemical industry, natural gas and other related industries. It is mainly used for the analysis of trace sulfur forms and total sulfur content in gas. NIMTT led the formulation of the national standard GB/T 33318-2016 Gas Analysis-Determination of Sulfide-Gas Chromatography with Sulfur Chemiluminescence in 2016, solving the long lasting problem of lacking standards in the industry. The standard is also about to be revised. The new-generation NexisSCD-2030 sulfur chemiluminescence detector of Shimadzu was released this year, and after its release in China. We conducted a series of tests on the performance of the instrument and obtained satisfactory
results.

In this period, we participated in the verification test for the formulation and revision of the national standard for natural gas Natural Gas-Determination of Sulfur Compounds-Part 10: Determination of Sulfur Compounds Using Gas Chromatography Method and the petrochemical industry standard Determination of Sulfur Compounds in Middle Distillate-Gas Chromatography and Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detector and obtained satisfactory experimental data.

In terms of national standards for quality analysis methods of the hydrogen for fuel cell, we are researching and developing the preconcentration-GC-SCD method, which is expected for the analysis of the total sulfur in the hydrogen (total sulfur content not exceeding 0.004ppm). At present, we have preliminarily obtained the relatively ideal data. After further verification, we hope to develop this method into a national standard to solve the world-class problem of trace sulfide measurement in hydrogen for the fuel cell industry.

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