Monthly Archives: May 2015

CO2, Humidity, Temperature

Incubators

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Incubators in General

Right from the point when human beings started to cultivate land they were strongly dependent on external influences. The levels of rain, sunshine, CO2 as well as soil quality defined the success rate of plant growth. Like plants, every organism has its specific requirements for optimal reproduction. Incubators are used to artificially generate an organism’s ideal environment. Even the ancient Egyptians learned that the rate of successfully hatched chickens increased drastically when they put the fertilized eggs in a big oven built out of bricks that was permanently heated slightly. Although in that case, only the temperature was “controlled”. The Egyptian egg oven can be considered the earliest incubator. But hatching eggs is only one application where incubators are used. Other important usages are the growth of bacteria, viruses and spores for research, diagnostic analysis or even drug production

“Egyptian Egg-oven.” Published in “The Penny Magazine”, August 10, 1833.

Facts & Figures:

India’s poultry industry has to expand from 2010 until 2013 annually by 12-15% to fulfil local demand only.

The average chicken weight doubled since 1934 and is now around 2.5kg.

The US chicken consumption grew from 22kg per capital in 1980 to 39kg in 2011.

Why the Need to Measure

Various elements need to be measured in order to provide an ideal environment for organisms to reproduce.

Temperature

For incubators that are used for chicken hatching, temperatures from 37.2°C to 37.7°C are ideal for incubators with fan circulation. If the incubator has no fan 38.8°C is recommended for best results. For bacteria generally 35°C is best.

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Incubator and shaker for growing cell cultures in liquid media

Humidity

For growing bacteria, high levels of humidity are required, the majority need 90%rh or higher. The widely known food poisoning bacteria “Salmonella“ only grows at 95%rh and above. For most moulds 80%rh is already sufficient to promote growth.

Humidity is also extremely important when hatching chicken eggs. Within the egg is a tiny air bubble that gets bigger during the growth of the embryo, but if the humidity level is to low the fluids that are essential to the final growth of the embryos are lost too quickly. A humidity level between 50-60%rh is considered ideal.

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Inside an incubator which is able to control humidity levels.

Carbon dioxide

In nature the CO2 level in a chickens nest is around 0.4% or 4000ppm compared to the surrounding air that has only 400ppm. Keeping the CO2 level in an incubator between 4000ppm to 6000ppm is necessary for a normal development. Especially in the late development of the eggs, the embryonic production of CO2 increases as incubation proceeds and therefore should be removed from the environment to keep the CO2 at a safe level.

Also in the research of cross-breeding or genetically modifying plants, a controlled CO2 environment is key to speed up the development process.

Philip Robinson                                                                                                       Rotronic UK

Sensors

Monitoring Transportation

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Rotronic has recently released a cold chain logger which can be used to ensure items are kept at the correct temperature during transportation.

tl-cc1_0094Rotronic cold chain logger

Transportation in general

One key aspect of today´s wealth in the modern world is specialization. So towns, regions or even whole countries focus on a few things they are really good at. This can be based on various factors; for example resources offered by the land, climatic conditions or specific knowledge that has been developed over a long period and has been passed on from generation to generation. As an example, Cuba provides brilliant conditions for the Corojo and Cirollo plants, better known as tobacco. Although smoking is quite popular among Cubans, their production of tobacco exceeds the local demand by far. On the other hand they lack other resources and goods. At that point trading, and therefore the importance of transportation, comes into play. In the case of the tobacco the transportation is not a simple task, since it requires a constant high humidity level to maintain the high quality expected from a Cuban cigar.

Tobacco-Fields-in-VinalesTobacco plants in Cuba

Like tobacco there are many products where special requirements for shipping have to be put in to consideration, in order to maintain freshness, internal integrity, colour quality or whatever other properties that could be affected by an inappropriate transportation.

Facts & figures:

A major step in the transportation industry was the international standardisation of shipping containers in 1955. This means that one container can be put directly from a vessel to a truck and transported all around the globe.

Today 28´000´000 ISO containers (20 feet) are permanently on the move, transporting goods from point to point keeping our economy running.

Every year 10´000 shipping containers fall over board.

0.16 Euro cents is the cost of transporting a bottle of Chilean whine to Europe.

Why the need to monitor transportation?

Various factors can have a negative impact on a product during transportation. Below are the most common parameters to be monitored to ensure product quality:

Temperature

Controlling temperature is the key in transporting fresh foods, where the rate of decomposition is reduced significantly by maintaining lower temperatures. It is also important as proof of an uninterrupted cool chain for frozen products or to ensure the effectiveness of medication.

truck_insidesthe back of a temperature controlled lorry.

Humidity

Monitoring humidity ensures that the growth of micro organisms in food and medications remains below critical levels. Controlling humidity also helps to maintain structural integrity of paper and cardboard or to avoid corrosion of metals during a long transatlantic journey in a shipping container.

Pressure

Apart of being able to reconstruct when and how long a parcel`s flight was, pressure is also en essential parameter for products that have to be transported in a vacuum or pressured chamber. This method could for example be used when transporting biological samples or hazardous chemicals.

Shock

To guarantee that expensive machinery, glass, works of art and other delicate products weren’t damaged during transportation, monitoring of the G-force in all three axis is the solution.

Rotronic-HygroLog-Log-HC2-P1-Universal-Humidity-and-Temperature-Data-Logger-Humidity-and-Temperature-Measurement---Large-21391770915

 

The Rotronic LOG-HC2 can log light, temperature, humidity, pressure, and shock.

Light

Light is a good parameter to determine if or at what time a container or package was opened. Also to ensure protection of light sensitive products such as vegetable oils, chemical substances or photo paper.

Philip Robinson                                                                                                       Rotronic UK

CO2

Measuring CO2 in a Greenhouse

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CO2 in Greenhouses in General

CO2 is one of the key ingredients of photosynthesis, meaning it is essential for plants to grow. Monitoring CO2 in a greenhouse allows optimisation of plant growth conditions, resulting in more efficient plant growth and higher crop yield. Different plants need different levels of CO2 in the air to maximise development.

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Facts & Figures

One of the largest greenhouses in the world is in Almeria, Spain where greenhouses cover almost 50000 acres (200km2)

In the Netherlands, greenhouses occupy 0.25% of the total land area.

The Netherlands has around 9000 greenhouse enterprises that operate over 10000 hectares of greenhouses and employ some 150000 workers: 80% of the manufactured produce is exported.

Why The Need to Measure CO2

It is essential to monitor CO2 levels at all times because different plants have different needs regarding CO2. Before photosynthesis, CO2 is collected by the enzyme RuBisCO. However, RuBisCO is just as happy to collect O2 as it is CO2. In C3 plants, RuBisCO collects CO2 from the air as soon as it comes through the stomata on the leaf. This means that if levels of CO2 in the air are low compared to levels of O2, the RuBisCO will just collect more O2 and the plant growth will be less efficient. In a C4 plant, there is an extra step during which CO2 is ‘filtered’ from the air and passed on to the RuBisCO. During this extra step, CO2 can be stored, meaning the stomata do not need to be open all of the time, helping to prevent water loss. In the C3 plant, the stomata need to be open more as there is not such storage of CO2. A third kind of plant, a CAM plant, can only collect CO2 at night, as its stomata are closed during the day.

Tomato_leaf_stomate_1-colorStomata on a tomato leaf

It is important to have close control of the ventilation of a greenhouse to utilise CO2 to maximum effect without risk
of damaging plants. Generally, the best practice is to provide increased CO2 to young plants and parent plants regularly, and to all other plants for a short period during spring. If the plant is sensitive it is extremely important to have pure CO2, to prevent damage. Up to 1 000 ppm CO2 is estimated as a good level.

If the levels of CO2 are too high in the greenhouse, plants can be damaged. If CO2 levels rise too high, plants will close their stomata to protect themselves, resulting in less transpiration, and therefore less nutrition is drawn through the plant, slowing down growth. CO2 levels vary considerably over a 24 hour period. This is because during the night, plants can stop photosynthesis (in the absence of light) and begin respiring. this means plants will switch from using CO2 to producing CO2.

plantsWhen there is plenty of light, a plant will photosynthesize, but when light levels are too low plants will begin to respire instead

What is the Result?

If all plants of a crop are grown in the same conditions (including CO2 levels), the chance that all plants will be ready for harvest at the same time is increased. The annual consumption of CO2 in a greenhouse is generally about 5-10 kg/m2, only in exceptional cases does would it be higher. The effect, of using CO2, on profit varies considderably. For example, tomatoes and cucumbers can give 8-10% higher return when growin in optimal CO2 levels. Plants grown in a CO2 enriched environment generally produce greater biomass than other plants, particularly in the roots, allowing faster growth and resulting in stronger plants with an increased reproductive rate.

Philip Robinson                                                                                                       Rotronic UK