Process Monitoring & Control
Chemical assays developed in your laboratory can be automated
and adapted for continuous monitoring . FIAlab Instruments will
assist you in this task, by designing a suitable instrumentation.
Any process engineer would prefer a sensor that can measure a desired parameter unfailingly without need for calibration – faithfully and forever. While physical sensors for temperature, pressure, etc. fulfill this role, chemical sensors, in spite of decades of research efforts, rarely meet the stringent requirements of chemical engineering. Automated chemical analyzers, based on continuous flow, became therefore the last resort, disfavored for their complexity, large reagent consumption and need for constant supervision. These drawbacks are absent when the design of a process analyzer is based on SI principles, since flow programming and simplified instrumentation makes the system compatible with the stringent requirements of the process control environment.
FIAlab process analyzers designed to a customers specifications, are now deployed in many locations, such as large manufacturing facilities, located in the Far East and in the US.
SI Based Process Control Instrumentation
Low sample and reagent consumption, low waste generation, robustness, portability, and mechanical simplicity, low volume and transparency of flow path, makes SI process monitors the tools of choice for continuous monitoring applications. The monitoring of a desired chemical or biological parameter in a 24/7 regime has been carried out in industrial environments, but also on remote locations. The reliability of SI based monitoring led to the development of process control instruments, that include auto dosing and alarm triggering.
Applications include:
1) monitoring of bioreactors (proteins, amino acids, ammonia, and glucose)
2) industrial dye bath monitoring with automated dilutions and dosing,
3) environmental monitoring at remote site,
4) monitoring of aquaculture and agriculture
5) monitoring of mining operations.
The FIAlab 4000 system
Built to customer specifications in a NEMA 4X enclosure with external laptop or desktop PC, brings SI from laboratory to the industrial setting. The computer and customizable software creates a complete command/control center to which other external instruments can be interfaced. Built-in components typically include a UV/VIS spectrometer and/or PMT based detector, syringe pump, multiposition valve, absorbance, fluorescence, and/or conductivity and ISE flowcells, broadband light source and heaters .
Electrical/communication interfaces typically include RS-232, RS-485, ADC (0-5 VDC, 4-20 mA), DAC (0-5 VDC, 4-20 mA), TTL and contact closure.
Example: On-line Monitoring of Dyes for the Textile Industry
Multiple components of dye are continuously monitored and dosed accordingly. The utilized temperature controlled flow cell has an optical path as short as 100 microns, eliminating the need for pre-measurement dilutions of optically dense samples. External sensors are interfaced to the FIAlab-4000 instrument, monitoring mass-flow, pH and temperature. During the mixing process and the end product, dye concentrations are measured to an accuracy of better than one percent.
Example: Monitoring of Bacteria Coli
The method is based on monitoring Beta-galactosidase activity using fluorometric detection. The instrument, designed by FIAlab on request from Colifast provides unattended monitoring at remote sites. A number of instruments have been deployed in Scandinavia, running typically 24/7 for up to one year with 100% uptime. For further information see section OEM Custom & Service.
Example: Control of Surfactant Concentration for the Electronic Industry
There are very few methods for an accurate assay of nonionic surfactants in the laboratory and none for process control applications. FIAlab designed such an assay and adapted it to a process analyzer that controls production of cleaning solution on an industrial scale.
Example: Monitoring of Chloride Concentration in Ethanol Production
Monitoring of chloride in ethanol is based on conductivity measurement. This dual channel FIAlab 4000 analyzer provides periodic calibration by chloride standards and data output on demand in a 24/7 operation cycle.
For further details on the SI technique consult Sequential Injection page and Tutorial.
