Quantitative reaction calorimeter, described

Calorimeters are instruments used for the direct measurement of heat quantities including heat production rates and heat capacities. Different measurement principles are employed and a very large number of calorimetric designs have been described since the first calorimetric experiments were reported more than 200 years ago. The amount of heat evolved in a chemical reaction is proportional to the amount of material taking part in the reaction and the heat production rate the thermal power, is proportional to the rate of the reaction. Calorimeters can therefore be employed as quantitative analytical instruments and in kinetic investigations, in addition to their use as thermodynamic instruments. Important uses of calorimeters in the medical field are at present in research on the biochemical level and in studies of living cellular systems. Such investigations are often linked to clinical applications but, so far, calorimetric techniques have hardly reached a state where one may call them clinical (analytical) instruments. ... 

The thermokinetic parameter as defined above provides semiquantitative information on the kinetics of the processes occurring in a calorimeter. The rigorous mathematical modeling of the thermokinetics for heat-flow calorimeters (2,34,42,130-132) and isoperibol calorimeters (133) has been recently discussed. Using these methods it is possible to obtain quantitatively the energetic as well as the kinetic parameters describing a number of important processes such as adsorption, desorption, consecutive processes involving the formation of adsorption intermediates, and chemical reactions. 

A comprehensive experimental research program to investigate the effects of pressure on the products of steam gasification of biomass is currently underway. A stainless steel, tubular microreactor similar to the quartz reactor described earlier has been fabricated for the experimental work. The pyrolysis furnace used with the quartz reactor system has been replaced in the pressurized steam system by a Setaram Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The DSC provides for quantitative determination of the effects of pressure on pyrolysis kinetics and heats of reaction. 

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