Control of a bioreactorusing labview

Abstract

Nowadays, cholesterol blood level in our society is increasing. The fermentation of red yeast rice provides a functional food product that contains Monacolin K (a chemical that reduces cholesterol). That is why Monacolin K receives a lot of attention from pharmaceutical companies. To produce this red yeast rice a reactor will be used where the reaction can be performed under controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, oxygen and carbon dioxide. This Bachelor project consists of controlling the temperature, humidity and measure the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations using the program LabVIEW. In order to control the parameters that are affected during growth of the yeast on rice, four sensors will be needed (temperature, humidity, oxygen and carbon dioxide) and two DAQ ports that allow the software (LabVIEW) to obtain the measurements in real time. Besides, a water bath will be needed to control the temperature (the signal will be provided by the software). All data will be automatically saved in graphs and files once the sensors read the values. As the temperature in the reactor will be an important parameter to obtain the optimal conditions for the highest productivity, this temperature has to be controlled all the time by the software. A PID controller may be useful to make the control system faster and more stable (to reach the set point desired). However, after calculations a PID controller is slower and not useful for the control system. A user guide is also included in the report for people that are not familiar with the software. In this manual every step that is necessary to perform before running the program is explained in detail. In conclusion,LabVIEW is fast enough to read the measurements and work parallel in other issues and the sensors have good accuracy.