Trish Meek* and Barbara van Cann^
How software can improve
biofuels production First it was United Airlines announcing plans to phase in biofuels in all flights operating out of LAX. Then KLM Royal Dutch actually launched flights from Oslo to Amsterdam using biofuels to power an Embraer 190.
T
and software can help producers reliably monitor, analyse, report and manage production.
his may be a drop in the bucket for
New technologies demand new approaches
an industry that now exceeds $700bn in yearly
From gas chromatography (GC), ion chromatography
revenue, but it’s clearly a sign of what’s to come.
and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy
It’s also proof that biofuels production is rapidly
to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
maturing, and this will dramatically increase
(ICP-MS), labs are increasingly outfitted with highly
expectations for quality and volume industry-
sensitive instruments capable of unprecedented
wide. As this happens, biofuels lab will be under
throughput. But all of this, while critical to managing
increased pressure to deliver quickly, efficiently
profitable production, creates data on a never-before-
and cost-effectively.
seen scale, and all of it must be traceable.
To meet the increasing industry demand,
The management and effective use of data can
producers will certainly step up production
be daunting. From routine analysis to complex
on entirely different scales. As this happens,
pattern recognition and reporting, mistakes
opportunities for pernicious inefficiencies
with data can compound rapidly. As production
and outright failures increase exponentially.
accelerates, managing data, with a laboratory
Fortunately, advanced analytical technologies
information management system (LIMS) for
38 | LAB+LIFE SCIENTIST - Dec 2016/Jan 2017
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