In Simple Terms
H.E.L has announced a machine that lets researchers run several chemical tests at once without forcing them all to use the same settings. Each container can have its own gas, heat, pressure, and schedule. That flexibility could make it easier to compare materials and find out which conditions work best.
In catalyst research, choosing a chemical and testing it once is rarely enough. Researchers need to see how a material behaves as temperature, pressure, or the type of gas changes. That is the challenge behind ChemSCAN+, a parallel-reactor platform announced by H.E.L on 28 October 2026. It is designed to let researchers run several reactions at the same time while setting independent operating conditions for each one.
Why Catalyst Testing Needs Flexibility
A catalyst is a material that helps a chemical reaction happen or influences how it proceeds. Finding the right catalyst can therefore require researchers to compare many materials and operating conditions. The outcome depends not only on the catalyst itself but also on factors such as temperature, pressure, gas composition, and how gas is supplied or removed. Testing a range of possibilities in an organized way can help researchers build a clearer picture of what is happening inside a reactor.
Parallel reactors make it possible to study more than one experiment at a time, but running several vessels together does not necessarily mean each one can follow its own path. If gas handling or the operating sequence is shared across the vessels, researchers may have to make the experiments follow similar settings or steps. That can make it harder to compare different catalysts or conditions, because some research questions do not fit a single operating cycle that applies to every experiment.
That is the central idea behind ChemSCAN+: it is not simply a collection of reactors in one machine. Each vessel can instead be treated as an experiment that can be controlled separately. This is a practical difference when designing a test series: researchers can assign different conditions to several reactions running at once, rather than repeating one experiment under shared settings. The added flexibility will not automatically answer every scientific question, but it expands the range of experiments that can be organized in a parallel run.
Independent Gas Control for Every Vessel
The platform provides automated, independent gas management for each reactor. According to the company, a vessel can be started, supplied with gas, vented, and purged separately from the others. Researchers can also assign up to three gas supply lines to each reactor. This gives them greater control over what enters each vessel and when, without requiring the other experiments to follow the same sequence.
This setup is useful when a research team wants to compare reactions that use different gas mixtures or feeding steps. Instead of setting every vessel to receive gas in the same way, researchers can create a separate program for each one to match the experiment. Individual venting and purging also make it possible to vary each vessel’s operating sequence, which can matter when experiments running side by side do not use identical procedures.
ChemSCAN+ is available in configurations with four or eight reactors. The choice determines how many vessels can run in parallel on the platform, but it does not change the basic principle: gas management is independent for each vessel. Having up to three dedicated gas lines per reactor also allows researchers to set up experiments with multiple feed-gas arrangements, while keeping each vessel’s settings adjustable on its own.
Controlling Temperature and Pressure—and Tracking Reactions
In addition to gas handling, the platform allows temperature and pressure to be set independently for each reactor. The company lists operating temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius and pressures of up to 200 bar, with the available limits varying by reactor configuration. These ranges mean the system can be used for experiments that require demanding operating conditions. However, the figures should be understood in the context of the selected configuration, rather than as a single set of settings that necessarily applies to every vessel and setup.
The platform supports working volumes from 2 milliliters to 400 milliliters. That range means the system can handle very small quantities of material as well as larger volumes within its stated limits. The announcement does not say that every volume can be used at the maximum temperature and pressure simultaneously. Researchers therefore need to check that the chosen vessel and operating conditions are compatible with the configuration they are using, particularly because the pressure and temperature limits depend on the reactor setup.
The company also lists real-time measurement of gas consumption as a monitoring tool. Tracking how much gas an experiment uses during operation can give researchers an indication of how the reaction is progressing. But gas consumption is only one indicator; it does not provide a complete account of all the chemical changes taking place inside the vessel. Researchers can use it as part of their monitoring, while interpreting the data in light of the experimental design and any other measurements they collect.
Experiments That Run Together but Not on the Same Schedule
One practical difference between a platform with independent controls and a system that uses a shared sequence is how time and steps are organized. A reaction in one vessel can begin while a reaction in another is at a different stage, or different vessels can receive different gases according to separate programs. This gives researchers more room to arrange tests around the scientific question, rather than making every experiment follow one standard cycle simply because the reactors are running together.
This flexibility does not remove the need for careful planning. Researchers still need to set conditions for each experiment, monitor its steps, and account for the limits of the vessel and its configuration. But automated gas management and independent temperature and pressure controls can make it easier to carry out several different experimental plans within one set of reactors. Researchers can then organize parallel comparisons across different conditions while keeping the settings for individual vessels more clearly separate.
Parallel testing matters because it allows researchers to examine more than one possibility during a single run, rather than running experiments only one after another. The announcement, however, gives no figures for how much time the system might save or how many samples it could analyze in a day. It would therefore be misleading to turn the design’s potential benefits into a quantified claim about increased productivity. What the company does state is that the system is designed to run several independent experiments at the same time, with automated control over key aspects of operation.
Chemistry Applications That Fit the Operating Range
H.E.L says ChemSCAN+ is suited to catalytic applications involving hydrogenation, carbonylation, and syngas chemistry. These areas involve different chemical processes, but their inclusion in the company’s list of intended applications shows that the platform is aimed at experiments requiring control over reaction conditions and gas supplies. The stated temperature and pressure ranges, together with the choice of working volumes, allow the system to be configured for a range of such tests.
Listing these applications does not mean every experiment in those fields will run automatically at the highest pressure or temperature, nor does it mean the machine guarantees a particular result for any catalyst. The appropriate settings depend on the study design, the materials, and the selected vessel. In this context, the platform’s value lies in providing independent operating tools that can help researchers explore different conditions—not in offering one recipe that works for every reaction.
For process development, the ability to compare several conditions offers a way to make screening studies more varied and systematic. For example, a researcher could assign different vessels to different temperature or pressure conditions, or to different gas feeds, while running them on the same platform. Reliable conclusions still depend on how the comparison is designed, the quality of the measurements, and how the results are interpreted. The platform enables experiments; it does not replace the scientific method that determines what to test and how to understand the findings.
What the Company Says—and What the Specifications Do Not Prove
H.E.L describes ChemSCAN+ as an advanced platform for parallel catalyst screening and reaction optimization, designed to provide greater flexibility and automation. The specific features listed in the announcement include configurations with four or eight reactors, up to three dedicated gas lines per reactor, working volumes from 2 to 400 milliliters, temperatures of up to 200 degrees Celsius, and pressures of up to 200 bar, depending on the configuration. The platform also measures gas consumption in real time.
These specifications describe the machine’s features, but they do not provide independent comparisons with other systems or data on measurement accuracy, operating time, or performance in a particular reaction. The announcement also does not present published test results or details of specific use protocols. It is important to distinguish a product announcement, which describes what a system is designed to do, from an experimental study that measures its performance under defined conditions and presents results for comparison.
The company quotes its general manager, Dr. Jasbir Singh, as saying that ChemSCAN+ represents a step forward in parallel catalyst screening because it gives researchers greater control and flexibility in their experiments. That statement can be understood in light of the announced design features: separate gas management, independent temperature and pressure settings, and the option to run four or eight vessels in parallel. The practical improvement a particular laboratory experiences will depend on its applications, equipment, and how it uses the system.
The Bottom Line
ChemSCAN+ offers a more independent approach to running parallel reactors. It comes in four- or eight-vessel configurations, with automated gas management for each vessel, up to three gas supply lines per reactor, independent temperature and pressure controls, and real-time gas-consumption monitoring. The stated working-volume range is 2 to 400 milliliters, while the operating limits reach 200 degrees Celsius and 200 bar, depending on the reactor configuration.
The design’s main appeal is that researchers can run different reactions at the same time without forcing them all to follow one shared operating sequence. That could broaden the options for catalyst screening and reaction optimization, including work on hydrogenation, carbonylation, and syngas chemistry. Still, the listed features are company specifications, not proof of research results or measured superiority over other equipment. The next step for any research team is to choose a suitable configuration and evaluate the system against its actual experimental needs.