CHRNS: Syringe Pump System

Syringe Pump

The 70 MPa syringe pump system can be used in conjunction with various sample cells to enable neutron scattering experiments requiring either gas or liquid pressures up to 70 MPa. During the unscheduled outage, both the hardware and software of the 70 MPa syringe pump system were upgraded to improve efficiency and enable new research capabilities. The system is SECOPS compliant.

Improvements:

An additional large-volume syringe pump was added to reduce the waiting time needed to boost the gas pressure. The gas manifold was upgraded to manage the three syringe pumps using automatic valves. The software was improved to automate the new capabilities and allow experiments that weren’t previously possible. This unique design also reduces the required amounts of expensive deuterated gas needed for some experiments.

The upgraded system now allows for the study of gas/liquid permeability in porous materials and the selective gas adsorption/desorption under a constant gas flow.  It reduces the number of booster stages required for gases that are only commercially available at relatively low pressure and volumes.

The system has been shipped to ORNL for user experiments under the CHRNS program and has been operationally tested.