4
LIFE IN THE GAS LANE IND U S T R I A L C HE MIS T Z I G G Y UIB E L P E R F O R M S AT HI G H O C TA NE
OCCASIONALLY, ONE STUMBLES
and shop located in Research Park
handling of petroleum engineers. Its
UPON SOMEONE WHO CONVINCES
southeast of the University of Utah.
featured, online process monitoring provides updates in real time of up to
YOU, THROUGH A COMBINATION OF TRAINING, TENACIT Y AND
Uibel moves about the floor of PI
seventeen different process streams
ENTHUSIASM ON AN EXISTENTIAL
with the wild-eyed energy of a kid
per instrument.
LEVEL , THAT THEY COULD DO OR
in a candy shop. He might as well
BE ANY THING IN THIS LIFE .
be riding inline skates or skiing, two
“We think of ourselves as more of
pastimes of his as a younger man.
an information company than an
Such is the case with Rory “Ziggy”
He is fond of picking up a dense
instrument company,” says Uibel. “A
Uibel, PhD ’03 who recently provided
spectrograph housed in something
refinery with our real-time information
for a select group of non-chemists
to the uninitiated that looks like
will be able to optimize stream
a tour of Process Instruments, Inc.
kryptonite casing and dropping it
blends and reduce giveaway of more
Founded by Lee Smith, Process
with a satisfying thud on the bench to
expensive components,” such as
Instruments (PI) has pioneered Raman
show how shockproof his product is.
octane.
control, primarily for refinery and
It needs to be. A Raman analyzer uses
PI’s optically fast spectrometer and
petrochemical plants at sites that can
a laser to probe molecular vibrations
low-loss sequential optical multiplexer
be environmentally extreme, from
of molecules where a tiny portion of
are paired with sets of fiber optic
arctic to desert and from tropical
the incident radiation is shifted to a
cables for exciting the sample and
climates to off-shore locations.
longer wavelength and produces a
collecting the Raman scattering.
Stokes Raman scattering band. The
At PI, the entire instrument and its
If that sounds arcane, it becomes
wavelength-shifted Raman bands
performance–from computers to
clearly grounded and articulated by
provide a structural fingerprint by
the cooling apparatus and from
the tour guide who leads an X Games-
which molecules in a sample can be
the laser probes to the fiber optic
style stunt-double life as an extreme
identified. PI manufactures Raman
conduits–can all be monitored and
athlete. Even so, he’s categorically in
instruments for not only extreme
maintained remotely. Equipment
his element as a chemist at the office
environments but for the rough
includes back-up components and, if
spectroscopy analysis for process
CATA LYST
| Department of Chemistry
