Establishment of temperature control scheme for microbioreactor operation using integrated microheater

• Main Authors: Zainal Alam, Muhd. Nazrul Hisham, Amiri Moghadam, Amir Ali, Kouzani, Abbas
• Format: Article
• Published: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2015
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/55060/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00542-014-2088-9
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

This paper presents design and fabrication of a microbioreactor platform, and implementation of two temperature control methods (i.e. on-off and PID) and their performance evaluation on the microbioreactor platform (working volume ~300 µL). The temperature of the microbioreactor content is controlled by using a subminiature heater placed underneath the microbioreactor and is measured with a miniature Pt 100 sensor. The microbioreactor is also integrated with a magnetic stirring capacity and a water evaporation control scheme. Programs for the two temperature control methods are written in LabVIEW software and implemented by interfacing them with a data acquisition card. It is shown that by implementing on–off and PID temperature control methods, the temperature of the microbioreactor content can be tightly controlled with an accuracy of approximately ±0.5 °C of the set point values. Both control methods also provide a good response and settling time values (i.e. around 2 min). Contrary to the on/off control method, the PID control method requires no adjustments whenever the set-point values are modified. The PID temperature control method works well for the entire tested range.