Vladimír Vašek

Processing poultry feathers into keratin hydrolysate through alkaline-enzymatic hydrolysis

Poultry feathers make up for as much as 8.5% of chicken weight and represent a considerable amount of almost pure keratin waste which is not being adequately utilized at the present time. The present study dealt with the processing of poultry feathers through a two-stage alkaline-enzymatic hydrolysis. In the first stage, feathers were mixed with a 0.1 or 0.3% KOH water solution in a 1 : 50 ratio and were incubated at 70°C for 24 h. After adjusting pH to 9, the effects examined in the second processing stage on the amount of degraded feathers were those of proteolytic enzyme additions (1-5%), time (4-8 h) and temperature (50-70°C). Processing feathers in 0.3% KOH and hydrolysing for 8 h in the second stage at 70°C with a 5% dose of enzyme (relative to dry feathers weight) produced approx. 91% degradation. Keratin hydrolysate is distinct for its high nitrogen content and reasonable inorganic solids level. Two-stage technology of alkaline-enzymatic hydrolysing of poultry feathers in an environment of 0.3% KOH achieves high efficiency under quite mild reaction conditions (temperature not exceeding 70°C with pH in a mildly alkaline region), and is feasible from an economic viewpoint. Keratin hydrolysate can find particular application in packaging technology (films, foils and encapsulates).

Simulation Model of a Smart Grid with an Integrated Large Heat Source

Abstract The purpose of this research is to improve an existing simulation model to provide a tool for effectively dealing with heating requirements in Intelligent Cities and Smart Grid Systems. The goal is to show that existing, large heating sources can become a valuable part of such systems and be connected as heat sources and not just electricity power producers. The first part of this article involves a Requirements Analysis and the design of the structure to be modeled. The second part shows the simulation experiments and results. The results provide valuable information regarding the possibility of using large heating sources and address their role in Intelligent Cities and Smart Grids.

Interactive software application for calculation of non-stationary heat conduction in a cylindrical body

In this paper we present software application used for the study of heat transfer problems that is a part of education of subject Process Engineering taught at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín. The application speeds up calculation of non‐stationary heat conduction and visualizes temperature distribution in the cylindrical body.

Utilization of audio source localization in security systems

Paper deals with utilization of audio source localization in security systems especially dedicated for additional securing of larger objects like squares or military basis for instance. Proposed detection system supposes that intruder makes uniquely determinable noise which can be picked up by microphone array. On the basis of real-time signal analysis from each microphone unit direction to acoustic source can be determined. In this paper is presented time-delay estimation method of the direction of arrival of the sound wave which is used in many other practical applications. Experimental part proposes design of the evaluation system consisting of microphone sensory system and standard personal computer equipped with Advantech PCI-1716 multifunction data acquisition card.

Microcontroller-based Data Acquisition Device for Process Control and Monitoring Applications

Process measurement is one of the most important tasks in the whole control system. It is determined by the fact that control accuracy is fully dependent on how preciously measuring chain works. Present-day there is available number of devices performing data acquisition tasks – standard cards for PCI or ISA bus which are suitable for standard personal computers and its industrial versions and modules for industrial automation usually equipped with RS485, CAN and other interfaces. Independent category is formed by smart sensors incorporating sensor, converter to unified signal and data acquisition device in one embedded system with very compact dimensions and low power consumption. They have number of advantageous features such as automatic diagnostic and calibration, high accuracy and immunity against electromagnetic interference due to short signal paths. On the other hand lower operating temperature range reduces their usage to laboratory applications, automotive and aircraft industry where compact dimensions and low weight are crucial. Quite often occurred situations when it is necessary to measure data in terrain where it is not possible to use standard computer equipped with DAQ card. In these cases laptop computer equipped with portable data acquisition device may be very advantageous. On the market are available devices equipped with USB 2.0 connectivity which can fully functionally substitute PCI cards. But they are not able to work without connected computer which must continually control all DAQ operations. Therefore it is not possible to use them in applications where is required long-term monitoring and archiving process quantities in distant areas without access to mains power. This contribution proposes design of multi-channel portable data acquisition device based on low cost general-purpose 8-bit microcontroller Freescale 68HC908GP32, which was developed in our department mainly for control and monitoring educational laboratory models. First part deals with hardware design of the DAQ device with focus on description of operation of individual functional blocks. After that follows description of internal software (firmware) based on real-time operating system RTMON for HC08, which was developed on our department especially for microcontroller-based embedded systems with CPU08 main processor core. Next chapters discuss DAQ device software support in form of program libraries for MS Visual C++, Control Web and Matlab/Simulink development environments, which can significantly improve development time of new process control or

Optimization of Protein Mixture Filtration

In this paper there is described filtering process for separating reaction mixture after enzymatic hydrolysis to process the chromium tanning waste [1]. Filtration process of this mixture is very complicated because it is case of mixture filtration with compressible cake. Successful process strongly depends on mathematical describing of filtration, calculating optimal values of pressure difference, specific resistant of filtration cake and temperature maintenance which is connected with viscosity change. The mathematic model of filtration with compressible cake we verified in laboratory conditions on special filtration device developed on our department. Industrial filtration differs from that in laboratory merely in the quantity of material being processed and in the necessity of processing it as cheaply as possible. In order to increase capacity while keeping filter dimensions not particularly large, the filter area per volume unit of plant gets increased as well as the difference between pressures before and behind the filtering screen or filter cake. A variety of different filter types are used and they depend on whether the particle content in liquid is low or high, whether the filter operates intermittently, semicontinuously or continuously, and on how the pressure difference is produced. Liquid flows through the cake and screen under the influence of a difference between pressures before the cake and behind the screen. We solved problems connected with filtration of reaction mixture after enzymatic hydrolysis.

Arduino Debugger

This letter describes our source-level debugger for Arduino which can be used to debug the code in Arduino using GNU debugger. The presented solution uses Eclipse as the visual front-end. It does not require any modification of the Arduino board or additional hardware; debug functionality is achieved by adding a program library to the user application. Standard functionality expected from a debugger is available, such as setting breakpoints while debugging, stepping through the code and viewing variables. This allows developing projects with Arduino more efficiently and also using the Arduino for teaching embedded programming at a more advanced level, including debugging the program.

Portable data acquisition device based on Motorola 68HC908GP32 microcontroller

Abstract The contribution deals with design of portable data acquisition device based on 8-bit microcontroller Motorola 68HC908GP32 which can be used in number of control and monitoring tasks. Hardware design is adopted to fulfill high reliability and immunity against industrial environment, high precision and compact dimensions. Communication with supervision system is performed via standard RS232 interface utilizing universal ASCII-based communication protocol which is supported by number of software environments like Matlab and Control Web for instance. Designed device was tested on real heating plant system with four temperature measurement channels andone digital channel for heating element control connected with standard personal computer running Matlab6.5 software.

C14: Software tool for program transformation from motorola 68HC11 to 68HC08 microcontrollers

Abstract This contribution deals with design of software conversion tool dedicated for M68HC11 program equipment transformation to new Motorolas microcontroller family M68HC08 which became a new 8-bit industry standard including number of new advantageous features. The main problem is that these new microcontrollers are not object code compatible. Therefore number of up to now created program equipment for M68HC11 can not be directly used on M68HC08. One way how to solve program transfer from M68HC11 on this new generation of microcontrollers is to design universal software tool transforming each instructions of M68HC11 program code to macros, which will have same function as original instruction and can be processed with same results by M68HC08 central processing unit.

Modern Control Methods On The Microcomputer Controllers

Abstract To support modern control methods on Motorola 68HC11 microcomputer several program modules were created as a part of program library. The created modules implement some algorithms from the province of adaptive and robust control. A module for recursive process identification was created as well as two modules for controller synthesis, which use the pole placement and the inversion of dynamic methods. A simple robust controller was also designed. Several applications were developed using both new and older modules to verify that the new code is fully functional and compatible with the library. Experiments proved that it is possible to employ modern methods of automatic control on existing hardware and achieve the benefits these methods offer, such as simple utilization, better quality of the control or energy savings.