The theme of our project this year is Manufacture, so we have been trying to contrive a series of hardware
to model the industrial production and enhance our method. However, the gap does exist between the
reality and our expectation.
List of what we use
By listing the main items we have purchased and actually used, we hope to provide some experience and
inspiration for the future team wishing to have HW production.
Hardware Design
Our system is mainly composed of two parts: reaction part and concentrated crystallization part. The
overall idea is that the reaction part provides the bacteria with appropriate reaction temperature,
adequate oxygen and the prevention of bacterial precipitation. After a certain period of time, the
reaction solution will be transferred to the concentrated crystallization part, where the concentration
of the productivity is increased by the reverse osmosis membrane; the temperature of the reaction
solution is lowered by the device, and the acrylic acid is finally crystallized.
1）Reaction Part
The reaction part mainly uses miniature DC self-priming pump, foam machine, acrylic material container,
aluminum hollow cylinder (built-in heating wire) and NTC thermistor temperature sensor.
Fig1 Miniature DC self - priming pump
Fig2 Hollow cylinder made of aluminum alloy
Fig3 Hontainer made of Acrylics
Fig4 3D design drawing Fig5 Booster pump
Instructions：When the system starts, the pump will continue to pump the upper reaction solution, which
will blend a large amount of air bubbles after passing the foam machine, and then will be pumped
back from the bottom reaction container. Furthermore, since the reaction vessel is cylindrical and
the bubbles are continuously rising, the purpose of stirring the reaction solution and providing
sufficient air can be achieved. Simultaneously, with the help of the temperature sensor, the system
will be able to control heating wire inside the aluminum alloy cylinder, so that the reaction solution
can maintain a suitable temperature range. Also, the poor thermal conductivity of acrylic materials
is conducive to insulation. (We had considered heating the air mixed with the reaction solution at
the foaming machine so that the reaction liquid pumped back to the reaction vessel would be blended
with a large amount of hot air, which could replace the additional heating device, but due to the
safety and energy efficiency, this thought was given up.)
2）Concentrated Crystallization Part
After the reaction has been performed for one cycle, the reaction part stops, and the reaction solution
is thus introduced into the concentrated crystallization part and the work begins.
In this part we mainly use the acrylic material container, aluminum alloy cold source (including
collection function), reverse osmosis membrane, pressure pump, temperature sensor, water level sensor
and semiconductor refrigeration film, etc.
Fig5 Hontainer made of Acrylics
Fig6 Cold source produced by aluminum alloy
Fig7 Reverse osmosis RO membrane
Fig8 Booster pump
Fig9 3D design drawing
Instructions:Concentrated crystallization part is relatively independent. As long as the system detects
that the internal water level is higher than the reverse osmosis membrane, the part will start to
work. With the pressure pump and reverse osmosis membrane, the water of the reaction solution will
be continuously extracted, which continues to improve the concentration of acrylic acid. And the
semiconductor refrigeration film will help keep the solution temperature below the melting point
286K of acrylic acid. After many rounds of cycles, acrylic acid crystals can be collected on the
bottom cooling source (but mixed with engineered bacteria).
3）System Controlling
In order to keep as much as possible in line with the actual industrial production, our device involves
a lot of electronic components, pumps, etc., so we designed a set of controlling procedures.
Because of our lack of experience and staff, we chose to master the Arduino controlling board due
to its lower difficulty, which shortened our production time. In addition, we also use 1602LCD display,
Relay module, NTC thermistor temperature sensor, Adjustable DC power supply, Semiconductor refrigeration
chip, Arduino controlling panel, Water level sensor, DuPont line, LCD1602 LCD adapter board, Motor
drive extension and so on.
Here is our main program of the controlling system:
Video
Impression summary
We have no relevant laboratory and company support, staff is also very scarce (the main staff is only
one person). The road of our first HW work was quite stumbling. So in this part, we hope to be able
to provide a lesson that feels most profound:
Before the actual production and debugging, full consideration and deduction must be carried out.
The delivery of the things bought often cost two or three days (in China, we mainly do online shopping,
so the courier time needs to be considered), and the purchase of goods may be inconsistent with what
we wanted. Plus, the negligence of some important details may lead to the purchase of wrong things,
which will waste a lot of valuable time.
If you want to know more or cooperate with us, welcome to contact us
