Waters has acquired all of the remaining outstanding capital stock of privately held Pittsburgh-based Thar Instruments, Inc, the world's largest supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) manufacturer, for an undisclosed amount. The company had previously made an equity investment in Thar in June 2007. Its current annual revenues are approximately $18 million, and the acquisition is estimated to be neutral to Waters 2009 earnings.

Considered a leading 'green' analytical and purification technology, Thar's SFC and extraction systems are used to separate, isolate and quantify chemical compounds. The principles of SFC are similar to those of liquid chromatography; however SFC typically uses carbon dioxide as the main mobile phase. Carbon dioxide offers environmental and cost benefits compared to liquid chromatography solvents.

"By combining Thar's advanced SFC instrumentation with Waters chromatography expertise, we will bring the benefits of SFC to more laboratories for analytical and purification applications worldwide," said Dr Rohit Khanna, vice president, Worldwide Marketing for Waters Division.

Complementing Waters Acquity UPLC environmental position of reduced solvent use without compromised analytical capabilities, SFC expands Waters 'green' separation science leadership as customers increasingly demand environmentally friendly options.

Thar products are used in pharmaceutical, life science, chemical and petrochemical companies, as well as government agencies, research institutions and universities. In a world seeking renewable technologies for solving waste and disposal problems, Waters and Thar seek to fill the void with innovative 'green' chemistry solutions.

"Through our collaborative partnership, we have already demonstrated Waters mass spectrometry instrumentation and software integration with Thar's SFC platform. Now, we look forward to further leverage Waters chromatography and informatics experience, as well as applications expertise and strong service and support model to provide advanced and broader SFC solutions worldwide," said Harbaksh Sidhu, managing director, Thar SFC, a Waters company.