Market Profile: FT-IR and FT-NIR in the Petrochemical Industry

The use of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Fourier transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectrometers now accounts for the majority of demand for mid- and near-infrared instruments, with demand from the petrochemical industry beginning to follow the trend. The major instrument vendors as well as specialist suppliers compete strongly in the petrochemical segment of the market, which accounts for only a small percentage of the overall FT-IR and FT-NIR markets.

The design of FT-IR and FT-NIR spectrometers uses an interferometer, and the technique requires complex computations to convert the information-rich signal into a spectrum. The result is an instrument that provides better resolution much more quickly than other configurations, such as dispersive spectrometers. As the price of FT-IR and FT-NIR instruments has come down, there has been a wholesale shift in demand for the techniques.

Petrochemical FT-IR and FT-NIR vendor share in 2011.

Demand from the petrochemical industry for laboratory and portable FT-IR and FT-NIR instrumentation was well over $30 million in 2011. Thermo Scientific and PerkinElmer, which are strong leaders in the overall market, are also among the largest suppliers to the petrochemical industry. Petroleum analyzer specialists AMETEK (Grabner) and eralytics GmbH are among companies that have developed dedicated FT-IR–based fuel analyzers.

The foregoing data were extracted from SDi's market analysis and perspectives report entitled The Global Assessment Report, 11th Edition: The Laboratory Life Science and Analytical Instrument Industry, October 2010. For more information, contact Stuart Press, Vice President, Strategic Directions International, Inc., 6242 Westchester Parkway, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90045, (310) 641-4982, fax: (310) 641-8851, www.strategic-directions.com.