Whitepapers

Photobioreactors (PBRs) are increasingly being used to grow algae for production of biofuel and other products. Light and CO2 are two major limiting resources that can restrict algal growth in PBRs. Atmospheric CO2 is only 0.04% and to overcome this limitation researchers have started to couple biogas released from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic waste with PBRs since biogas consists of mostly CO2 and CH4.

The research in the group of Prof. Rolf Müller at Saarbrücken/Germany addresses the chemistry, biosynthesis, regulation, heterologous production and mode-of-action of secondary metabolites from myxobacteria. These soil-dwelling microbes are potent microbial producers of natural products, which show strong activities as antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs or immunosuppressants, amongst others.

Material refinement and processing can involve dozens of unit operations to finally arrive at a saleable, high-value advanced material.

Thermal processing is typically the most energy intensive portion of a materials manufacturing process. Opportunities to conserve energy not only reduce ecological impact, but can result in significant cost saving, as thermal processing is a criti-cal cost driver in direct equipment and installed utility requirements. To make the best use of possible opportunities, it is im-portant to consider the form of the commercial process as early as during laboratory development to ensure it will be suitable for application in the intended continuous form. In particular, continuous thermal processes offer multiple opportunities for energy conservation over batch, including reduced residence time, minimizing thermal requirements to heat ancillary process components, and opportunities for use of byproduct materials and heat for preheating. Detailed discussion on opportunities for continuous, energy efficient thermal processing will be provided with examples of commercially relevant processes to il-lustrate the concept and provide a guide for future considerations.

Published: by  | Harper International

Manual processes in the lab can become a huge cost factor – Therefor, reducing these steps with automated procedures is highly attractive.

Laboratory processes still feature a lot of manual work. Not only do those steps cause huge costs, but also result in an unclear variation of workflows. No wonder, that many laboratories are aiming to reduce manual work by automation to achieve better reproducible results and more cost effective sample preparations.

Agilent has been providing instrumentation and automation software for 13 years now,  in which the company has established a unique portfolio and excellent expertise in common lab applications. By automating recurring processes, laboratory personnel can be relieved from these tasks, helping them to concentrate on actual research work
Agilent offers solutions for simple, but time consuming tasks like liquid handling, labeling, centrifugation and sealing up to complex biological, biopharmaceutical and chemical analytics. This Whitepaper gives a detailed overview over the company’s portfolio and its application platforms and components.

Published: 07/18/2013 | Agilent Technologies Sales & Services GmbH & Co.KG

The demand for control automation products that are easy to integrate into a company’s data sharing infrastructure is on the rise. Learn how OPC UA helps including embedded applications into it.

Strong demand for improved access to shop-floor data is driving control automation vendors to make their devices as easy to integrate as possible. Embedded OPC UA presents tremendous opportunities for device vendors to make their products stand out with native open data connectivity that is more secure, easier to integrate in multi-vendor environments, and opens door to new markets due to the widespread use of OPC. This paper discusses the key challenges device vendors must be overcome to successfully harness this breakthrough but complex technology.

Published: 01/15/2014 | Matrikon Deutschland AG

QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - ISO 9001:2008

The subject of strain measurement has previously been addressed extensively. Most of the existing transducers either rely on low voltage analogue systems (e.g. conventional resistive strain gauge), complicated mechanical assemblies by physically assessing the specimen displacement, optical systems, acoustic systems or pneumatic systems.

This paper identifies a new, potentially low cost, non-contact, frequency domain strain sensor utilising SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) Technology for surface strain measurement. The sensor has a short axial length making it flexible in terms of integration into a variety of applications, encompassing both static and dynamic strain measurement. The paper presents a technical description of the resulting strain transducer, regarding its operation, construction and in particularly, application to areas requiring strain measurement. Demonstration of the transducer performance will be addressed utilising test results from existing developed transducers.

The paper describes the application of a non-contact, high bandwidth, low cost, SAW-based torque measuring system for improving the dynamic performance of industrial process motor-drive systems. Background to the SAW technology and its motor integration is discussed and a resonance ratio control (RRC) technique for the coordinated motion control of multi-inertia mechanical systems, based on the measurement of shaft torque via a SAW-based torque sensor is proposed. Furthermore, a new controller structure, RRC plus disturbance feedback is proposed, which enables the controller to be designed to independently satisfy tracking and regulation performance. A tuning method for the RRC structure is given based on the ITAE index, normalized as a function of the mechanical parameters enabling a direct performance comparison between a basic proportional and integral (PI) controller. The use of a reduced-order state observer is presented to provide a dynamic estimate of the load-side disturbance torque for a multi-inertia mechanical system, with an appraisal of the composite closed-loop dynamics. The control structures are experimentally validated and demonstrate significant improvement in dynamic tracking performance, whilst additionally rejecting periodic load side disturbances, a feature previously unrealisable except by other, high-gain control schemes that impose small stability margins.

The subject of torque measurement has previously been addressed extensively. Most of the existing transducers either rely on low voltage analogue systems (e.g. conventional resistive strain gauge) or complicated mechanical assemblies by physically assessing displacement, i.e. optical systems. This paper identifies a new, potentially low cost, non-contact, frequency domain strain torque sensor1 utilising SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) Technology for surface strain measurement. The sensor has a short axial length making it flexible in terms of integration into a variety of applications, encompassing both static and dynamic measurement. The paper presents a technical description of the resulting transducer, regarding its operation and construction.