No description available.

The world's brown marine algae, or kelps, have a great potential for agricultural use. Over 14 million tonnes of kelp are estimated to be available for harvesting every year, but only 6.3% is harvested, mostly for food products or alginate extraction. The inclusion of kelp in an animal's ration has been found by several researchers to have a beneficial effect on the animal's health and productivity. High concentrations of kelp in an animal's ration, however, can have detrimental effects on the animal's health due to toxic levels of certain inorganic salts. / By including a dewatering operation in the production of dried kelp meal, much of the soluble salts present in the kelp will be removed with the filtrate. The filtrate would also be valuable as a source of potassium, trace minerals, and phyto-hormones for crops. Energy costs for dewatering are also much lower than for drying. Because kelp is difficult to dewater using conventional methods, a combined fields technique using electro-osmosis and mechanical pressure was investigated. / Electric current and pressure were both found to have a significant positive effect on dewatering. Dewatering resulted in significantly lower ash and available carbohydrate fractions, while having no other significant effect on kelp meal composition. The combined fields dewatering resulted in significant total energy savings over conventional dewatering or drying alone. / The combined fields dewatering process was successfully scaled up to a continuous process using a prototype roller press. The press was able to produce a press cake with up to 32% solids. The continuous process resulted in significantly lower ash content and significantly higher protein. The total energy to produce kelp meal with the roller press was found to be about half of the energy required for drying alone.

No description available.

Experiments were performed using a microparticle image velocimetry (MPIV) for full field velocity distributions of electroosmotically driven flows in a 40 mm long microchannel with a square cross section of 200 µm ¡Ñ 200 µm. Electroosmotic flow bulk fluid velocity measurements were made in a range of streamwise electric field strengths from 5 to 25 kV/m. A series of seed particle calibration tests can be made in a 200 µm x 200 µm x 24000 µm untreated PDMS channel incorporating MPIV to determine the electrophoretic mobilities in aqueous buffer solutions of 1 TAE, 1 TBE, 10 mM NaCl, and 10 mM borate, respectively. A linear/nonlinear (due to Joule heating) flow rate increase with applied field was obtained and compared with those of previous studies. A parametric study, with extensive measurements was performed with different electric field strength and buffer solution concentration under a constant zeta potential at wall for each buffer. The characteristics of electroosmotic flow in square microchannels were thus investigated. Finally, a composite correlation of the relevant parameters was developed within accuracy for 99% of the experimental data.

Thesis (M.S.)--Washington State University, August 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-77).

The introduction of bio-molecules into cells and embryos is required in the fields of drug development, genetic engineering and in-vitro fertilization. It has been applied to create transgenic mammals and to improve pest and mold resistance in plants. However, the efficient transfection of materials still poses a problem, and a variety of techniques, broadly classified as biochemical and physical means, are actively being developed. One technique that is promising is capillary microinjection as it offers low cytotoxicity, targeted injections and high transfection efficiency. However, this process suffers from low throughput and variability as it is an operator mediated process. Other problems associated with capillary microinjection are limitations on the minimum needle size and variability in transfected volumes due to the use of pressure driven flow for injections. In this thesis we propose a device that employs microfluidic principles to enable cell microinjections in a 'lab on a chip' format and eliminates the problems associated with capillary microinjection. The device is fabricated using poly dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) rapid prototyping and features two separate channel structures-one to supply the targets and the other to supply the reagent. Integrated into the device are a microinjection capillary (10 μm tip diameter) and a suction capillary (0.5mm ID/1mm OD) which is used to immobilize the targets in the channel prior to injection. The actuation of the injection needle into the targets is achieved by the compliant deformation of the flexible PDMS substrate as a result of an externally applied displacement. This is made possible by the selective reinforcement of the PDMS substrate. From testing it was found that the effective needle actuation is 83.8% of the externally applied displacement. The injections occur in a planar configuration therefore providing precise control over the location of injection. Furthermore, the mechanism requires only one degree of freedom to perform injections, and therefore greatly simplifies existing injection techniques which require orientation in a three dimensional space. The limitations of the use of pressure driven flow for injections are overcome by performing reagent injection by electroosmotic flow, which is induced by applying a potential to electrodes embedded in the target and reagent supply channels. The applied potential induces electroosmotic flow through the embedded needle and into the injection target. This provides precise electrical dosage control. The flow rates were obtained by measuring the velocity of the interface between a neutral fluorescent marker and a clear pH 10 buffer solution. The obtained flow rates follow a predictable linear trend and correspond well to theory. The use of electroosmotic flow enables the use of smaller injection needles as it scales more favorably (r^-2) than pressure driven flow (r^-4) and becomes increasingly dominant in smaller dimensions. Present pressure microinjection systems are limited to injection needles with tip diameters larger than 0.2μm due to the high pressures required to dose at smaller dimensions. All components of the device are fully scalable and enable further miniaturization, multiple parallel injections and autonomous functionality. The device requires smaller volumes of samples and expensive reagents and also reduces the time required for performing injections. Overall, it device maintains the advantages of microinjection, while eliminating problems of low throughput, dosage control and restrictions on the injection needle size. The device was successfully used and characterized for the injection of single-cell Xenopus Laevis eggs and Zebrafish embryos. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Thesis. 1977. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / Ph.D.

Experiments were conducted on the investigation of the electroosmotic flow with five different electric field strength, four kinds of buffer solution concentration, six different pH values, and three kinds of microchannel geometry. Joule heating effects were also taken into consideration. Experiments were performed using a microparticle image velocimetry (MPIV) for full field velocity distributions and micro laser-induced fluorescent (£gLIF) for full field temperature distributions. It is found that the presence of Joule heating and flow area change could have a great impact on the microfluidic transportation, e.g. dispersion. Furthermore, data were presented and the relation between zeta potential and pH value were discussed in detail. It is found that, as pH > 7.5, all silanol sites are deprotonated.

Electroosmotic flow is a convenient mechanism for transporting polar fluid in a microfluidic device. The flow is generated through the application of an external electric field that acts on the free charges that exists in a thin Debye layer at the channel walls. The charge on the wall is due to the chemistry of the solid-fluid interface, and it can vary along the channel, e.g. due to modification of the wall. This investigation focuses on the simulation of the electroosmotic flow (EOF) profile in a cylindrical microchannel with step change in zeta potential. The modified Navier-Stoke equation governing the velocity field and a non-linear two-dimensional Poisson-Boltzmann equation governing the electrical double-layer (EDL) field distribution are solved numerically using finite control-volume method. Continuities of flow rate and electric current are enforced resulting in a non-uniform electrical field and pressure gradient distribution along the channel. The resulting parabolic velocity distribution at the junction of the step change in zeta potential, which is more typical of a pressure-driven velocity flow profile, is obtained. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Integrated microfluidic devices for biomedical analysis attract lots of interest in the MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) research field. However, the characteristic Reynolds number for liquids flowing in these microchannels is very small (typically less than 10). At such low Reynolds numbers, turbulent mixing does not occur and homogenization of the solutions occurs through diffusion processes alone. Hence, a satisfactory mixing performance generally requires the use of extended flow channels and takes longer to accomplish such that the practical benefits of such devices are somewhat limited. Consequently, accomplishing the goal of u¡VTAS requires the development of enhanced mixing techniques for microfluidic structures. This study first presents a microfluidic mixer utilizing alternatively switching electroosmotic flow and proposes two microchannel designs of T-form and double-T-form micromixer. Switching DC field is used to generate the electroosmotic force to drive the fluid and also used for mixing of the fluids simultaneously, such that moving parts in the microfluidic device and delicate external control system are not required for the mixing purpose. Furthermore, this study also proposed a novel pinched-switching mode in the T-form microfluidic mixer, which could be effectively increase the perturbation within the fluid to promote the mixing efficiency. In this study, computer simulation for the operation conditions is used to predict the mixing outcomes and the mixing performance is also confirmed experimentally. Result shows the mixing performance can be as larger as 95% within the mixing distance of 1 mm downstream the common boundary between the different sample fluids. The novel method proposed in this study can be used for solving the mixing problem in a simple way in the field of micro-total-analysis-systems. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the proposed micromixer is feasible for on-line bio-reaction, this study designs a fully integrated device for demonstration of DNA/enzyme reaction within the microfluidic chip. The microchip device contains a pre-column concentrating region, a micro mixer for DNA-enzyme mixing, an adjustable temperature control system and a post-column concentration channel. The integrated microfluidic chip has been used to implement the DNA digestion and extraction. Successfully digestion of £f-DNA using EcoRI restriction enzyme in the proposed device is demonstrated utilizing large-scale gel electrophoresis scheme. Results show that the reaction speed doubled while using the microfluidic system. In addition, on-line DNA digestion and capillary electrophoresis detection is also successfully demonstrated using a standard DNA-enzyme system of $X-174 and Hae III. Finally, this reasearch also proposes a novel cell/microparticle manipulation platform by integrating an optical tweezer system and a micro flow cytometer. During operation, electrokinetically driven sheath flows are utilized to focus microparticles to flow in the center of the sample stream then pass through an optical manipulation area. An IR diode laser is focused to generate force gradient in the optical manipulation area to manipulate the microparticles in the microfluidic device. Moving the particles at a static condition is demonstrated to confirm the feasibility of the home-built optical tweezer. The trapping force of the optical tweezer is measured using a novel method of Stocks-drag equilibrium. The proposed system can continuously catch moving microparticles in the flowing stream or switch them to flow into another sample flow within the microchannel. Target particles can be separated from the sample particles with this high efficient approach. More importantly, the system demonstrates a continuously manipulation of microparticles using non-contact force gradient such that moving parts and delicate fabrication processes can be excluded. The proposed system is feasible of high-throughput catching, moving, manipulation and sorting specific microparticles/cells within a mixed sample and results in a simple solution for cell/microparticle manipulation in the field of micro-total-analysis-systems. In this thesis, low-cost soda-lime glass substrates are adopted for the microchip fabrication using a simple and reliable fabrication process. Three kinds of novel microfluidic devices including an electrokinetically-driven microfluidic mixer, a high throughput DNA/enzyme reactor and an optically cell manipulation platform are successfully demonstrated. It is the author¡¦s believes that the results of this study will give important contributions in the development of micro-total-analysis-systems in the future. With the success of this study, we have a further step approaching to the dream of lab-on-a-chip system for bio-analytical applications.