0000000000423003
AUTHOR
Ion Dan Mironescu
Obtaining and Characterisation of Starch-Based Edible Films Incorporating Honey, Propolis and Bee Bread
Abstract This research investigates the physical-chemical, sensorial and mechanical characteristics of starch-based edible films incorporating three types of bee hive products: honey, propolis and bee bread, in concentrations varying from 1% to 3%, reported to starch. The results indicates an increasing of films moisture, water activity, ash content and acidity, in the order: honey<propolis<bee bread, all values increasing with the increasing of hive products percentage into the control film; aw is remaining at very low values, under 0.4. Sensorial analysis indicated honey as the better suited for improving taste and flavour and bee bread for increasing colour intensity of the films; …
Improving the Training Methods for Designers of Flexible Production Cells in Factories of the Future
This work proposes a design method for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS). The method reduces the learning curve by helping employees to solve problems related to the design and optimization of the layout, operation and control of FMS, avoiding the drawbacks of current tools. The approach uses Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSML) for specification of FMS. The paper presents the definition of the DSML and the implementation of the graphical modeling and simulation tool bringing important contributions to development of the domain through the use of constructions from categories theory for DSML specifications. This mathematical basis allows the definition of constraints to avoid supple…
Comparative Analysis of Quality Criteria for the Control of Liquefaction at the Obtaining of Starch-Based Hydrolysates
Starch hydrolysates production converts starch to different kinds of products using enzymes in two steps, liquefaction and saccharification. This study investigated three types of analysis methods for the assessing and characterization of the liquefaction process: a rheological method (to measure yield stress), a chemical method (for the determination of Dextrose Equivalent DE) and a chromatographic method (HPLC to obtain the Degrees of Polymerization DPs). Potato starch with 13.5% dry substance was liquefied with the enzyme Liquozyme Supra for two hours in optimal conditions of pH and temperature. A comparative analysis between the methods to describe the liquefaction process was realise…
Steady and oscillatory shear behaviour of semi-concentrated starch suspensions
The viscoelastic moduli G’ and G” of aqueous suspensions with 40% (w/v) normal corn starch (NCS) and waxy corn starch (WCS) were determined by oscillation rheometry. The oscillatory shear flow experiments at heating from 30° to 75 °C and maintaining at this temperature showed changes from a behaviour predominant viscous (G”>>G’) to predominant elastic (G’>G”) for both starches at 60.5 °C for WCS, respectively 70,85 °C for NCS, WCS having higher values of G’ and G” as NCS. After the gelatinisation temperature was attired, NCS showed no significant changes, both moduli remaining relatively constant. Peaks of both moduli G’ and G” were obtained for WCS at its maintaining at 75oC, these changes…
Design of the Biotechnological System for the Cultivation of a Polysaccharide-Producing Microorganism and Metabolites Separation
This paper presents a design of the biotechnological system established for the cultivation of a polysaccharide-producing microorganism and the separation of the polysaccharide together with other metabolites. The strain used is a halophilic archaeon called Haloferax mediterranei (Mironescu et al., 2003). On designing the biotechnological system, some requirements are important: The recipients and the pipes must be resistant to the corrosion action of the cultivation substrate very rich in NaCl (125 to 150 g/l); A command and control system for pH, temperature and substrate and inoculum feeding is necessary; A system for monitoring dissolved oxygen and gases evacuated from the bioreactor (O…
Modelling of Starch Gelatinisation and Liquefaction with the Enzyme Liquozyme
In this paper the influence of the enzyme Liquozyme Supra concentration (0.4-1.2 kg/t dry substance DS) and gelatinisation time (3-11 min.) on the liquefied starch quality is investigated. The composition in sugars with different Degrees of Polymerisation (DP) as DP1 (glucose), DP2 (maltose), DP3 (maltotriose), DP4 (maltotetrose) and oligosaccharides with DP≥5 is analysed by using HPLC with RI detector. The products obtained have different DP, the main components being oligosaccharides with DP≥5, followed by small amount of DP3+DP4 and much smaller concentrations of DP1; no DP2 is produced by this enzyme. Two quality criteria: the percent of oligosaccharides with DP≥5 and the percent of DP1…
A task scheduling algorithm for HPC applications using colored stochastic Petri Net models
The increase in demand for High Performance Computing (HPC) scientific applications motivates the efforts to reduce costs of running these applications. The problem to solve is that of dynamical multi-criterial optimal scheduling of an application on a HPC platform with a high number of heterogeneous nodes. The solution proposed by the authors is a HPC hardware-software architecture that includes the infrastructure for two level (node and inter-node level) adaptive load balancing. The article presents the development of an Coloured Petri Net(CPN) for such an architecture. The model was used for the development of a dynamic distributed algorithm for the scheduling problem. The CPN allowed a …
An ADOxx Based Environment for Problem Based Learning in Manufacturing Systems Design
The Problem Based Learning (PBL) as student centred approach and learning-by-doing method is suited for the modern higher education. However, the first contact with the method can be overwhelming for the students, in the absence of prior domain knowledge. The preparation of the learning material can be time and resource consuming for the teacher. The goal of the research was the implementation of an environment that should enhance the learning experience for the student and reduce the implementation burden for the teacher. The environment is based on the ADOxx platform and allows the collaboration of the learner teams and the teacher-learner interaction on three levels. The Metamodeling lev…
Petri Net Modelling of the Starch Enzymatic Liquefaction
This paper investigates the use of the Petri Net modelling language for the description and analysis of the enzymatic reactions that are used for the starch liquefaction. The Coloured Petri Net formalism supported by the CPN Tools modelling and simulation environment is used. The pools of substrates and products are represented as the places and the possible reactions as the transition of the net. The concurrent reactions are modelled trough transitions that are enabled at the same time. The occurrence probabilities associated with each of these concurrent transitions are chosen as the model parameters. The analysis of the specific properties of the model is used to fit the model to data fr…
Design of a knowledge and management system for starch bioconversion
Abstract In this paper a knowledge acquisition and management system (KAMS) which allows the collection, analysis, ordering and storage of informations generated at starch liquefaction was developed. KAMS was structured on three levels: PostgreSQL as a backend, D2RQ as middle tier and Seaside as frontend. The system was used to store knowledge about the liquefaction process with the goal to be used as a decision support system in chosing the condition for this operation. The tests had shown that the implemented KAMS provides support for: Distributed acquisition of the scientific data generated by the researchers; Structured data storage; Support for the generation and storage of knowledge o…
Influence of the Liquefied Starch Composition and pH on the Saccharification at the Obtaining of Maltose Syrup
In this paper the influence of the composition of the liquefied starch and of pH on the quality of saccharification at the obtaining of maltose syrup is investigated. A large number of experiments (68) in various liquefaction conditions show that Dextrose Equivalent (DE) and the composition in hydrolysis products with Degree of Polymerisation higher as four (DP ≥4) in the liquefied starch have a strong influence on the saccharification products, mainly on the maltose content in the maltose syrups. The liquefied starch with DE lower as 25 has smaller amounts of DP ≥4 (40 to 60%), whereas the liquefied starch with DE between 25 and 27 has high amounts of DP ≥4 (60 to 80%). For the production …
A Simulation Based Analysis of an Multi Objective Diffusive Load Balancing Algorithm
In this paper, we presented a further development of our research on developing an optimal software-hardware mapping framework. We used the Petri Net model of the complete hardware and software High Performance Computing (HPC) system running a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) application, to simulate the behaviour of the proposed diffusive two level multi-objective load-balancing algorithm. We developed an meta-heuristic algorithm for generating an approximation of the Pareto-optimal set to be used as reference. The simulations showed the advantages of this algorithm over other diffusive algorithms: reduced computational and communication overhead and robustness due to low dependence on u…