Gulf Coast Conference: “Valuable Show, As Always”

More than 1,200 people flocked to Moody Gardens on Galveston Island, Texas, to take part in the 2007 Gulf Coast Conference (GCC), an increase over last year’s attendance. Exhibitors represented about 40 percent of that number. The remaining 60 percent was comprised of those that came to attend some of the many presentations and exhibits, or to simply walk the aisles to see what the more than 130 exhibitors had to offer.

Part of the Mission Statement of the GCC reads: “The Gulf Coast Conference is a non-profit organization orientated toward the education and advancement of knowledge of Chemical Analysis Technology associated with the Petrochemical, Refining, Environmental, and Industrial Hygiene fields and professions.

That stated mission was fulfilled by exhibits and the nearly 90 presentations and poster sessions. For the third year, the New Product Showcase sessions were offered, during which selected vendors showed off and demonstrated their latest and newest advances in products, software, and methodology. For one and one-half hours each day, attendees were enticed to stop at this separate area, which was conveniently located in the section of the conference where the presentations were made.

The hot topic for the show seemed to be related to the determination of impurities such as sulfur and metallics in ultra-low sulphur in diesel (ULSD) fuel. Papers on this topic were given by Consolidated Science Corp (Consci), Horiba, Teledyne Lehman Labs, XOS, Thermo Fisher Scientific, OI Analytical, Process Instruments Inc., and Varian. Matheson- Trigas held a special luncheon and presentation on the ULSD topic. Teledyne Tekmar presented a paper on the analysis of benzene in soft drinks, another of the latest critical points of interest. DCG presented a poster session on the need to purify the benzene used as the matrix in order to be able to make accurate mixes in the benzene with single digit levels of such contaminants as Toluene and Methylcyclohexane. Airgas gave a paper on the effect of impurities on signal to noise ratio as well as factors that would contribute to the problem, and possible solutions. Abstracts of all the poster sessions and presentations can be found on the GCC web site (www.gulfcoastconference. com).

The attached table of the companies we feel would be of interest to our readers (listing the company, their specialty, and web address) shows that the analytical instrument manufacturers were well represented in both the paper presentation area as well as on the exhibit floor. We were disappointed in the number of Specialty Gas companies represented this year as compared to previous years. Our feeling is that the papers draw the attendees, and therefore if one does not offer pertinent papers, you can’t draw people to your booth. We were led to believe that those that did not exhibit, decided that the ISA show held earlier in the month in Houston would give them better results.

Our view is that while both shows are important, the ISA show concentrates more on process instrumentation rather than analytical instrumentation. We hope that next year some of them will return to provide information on the analytical standards they can produce using newly developed methods, rather than information provided by the instrument manufacturers of the instruments that require the gases that will calibrate them.

We got the impression that the majority of those that did exhibit were well pleased by the quality of those that walked the floor. We look forward to seeing more of you at next years conference; again at Moody Gardens on October 14th and 15th, 2008

Specialty Gas Report FOURTH QUARTER 2007 //