This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Sensor de medida instántanea en línea de masa microbiana

The device allows you to monitor in real time the evolution of the growth of the culture in a bioreactor

Sensor measure instant online microbial mass

Drafting QU01/10/2004

Investigators of the CSIC and the UPV has developed a biomass of high accuracy and low cost sensor. The system can be used for a wide range of measures of absorption and can be calibrated "on-line". The researchers are interested in reaching licensing agreements.

Researchers of the Group of Control of complex systems of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Department of biotechnology , the Institute of agro-chemistry and technology of food (IATA) of the CSIC have developed a biomass of high accuracy and low cost sensor. The device allows to know the extent of biomass instantly and control in real time the evolution of the growth of the culture in a bioreactor.

The system can be used for a wide range of measures of absorption and can be calibrated "on-line". The researchers are interested in reaching licensing agreements.

The technology can be used to monitor the growth of different strains of microorganisms, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactococcus lactis, lactobacilus plantarum, Bacillus thuringiensis or pichia pastoris, and it may be useful in general applications of biotechnology, food, chemistry, pharmacy and wastewater treatment.

The invention allows on-line concentration of biomass and/or products contained in a bioreactor from the measurement of optical absorption in the visible or infrared wavelengths. It allows to obtain in real time the concentration of biomass of different types of microorganisms and some products to various conditions and in a wide range of values.

The system offers a correct estimate of the evolution of the crop from values of absorbance of 0.1 to values higher than 80 of optical density, at wavelengths of the visible or infrared spectrum near.

The device uses (led) light emitting diodes as light source and photodiodes of silicon for the detection of the intensity of light that passes through the sample means.

The potential for interference with gaseous bubbles or particles are removed by the continuous acquisition of data, which are filtered by a unit of process that eliminates the influence of bubbles in the measure. Also, the system can be calibrated "on-line" during the execution of each process and correct possible deviations in the calibration curve.

The system sensors can be connected in network

The innovative configuration of the computer can use the device in a very wide range of measures of absorption and to remain good thermal stability characteristics. In addition, a programme for the acquisition and recording of data are available. They are processed through a control software, that allows to obtain the instantaneous value of the crop-specific growth rate and rate of generation of product.

Thus, it is possible to automatically control the process, varying to will the rate of growth of the crop, or the rate of generation of product, which allows to gain time and money.

Some of the innovative aspects of the system is its low cost, stability against variations in temperature, the use of a means of reference, the possibility of recalibration online, low sensitivity to bubbles of gas present in the bioreactorthe wide range of measures of absorption and accuracy.

In addition, sensors of the system, which you can currently see a prototype in operation, can be connected in network, which allows the simultaneous measurement of multiple devices from a single computer.