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Chem. Eng. Comm., 192: 137–144, 2005 Copyright # Taylor Francis Inc. ISSN: 0098-6445 print=1563-5201 online DOI: 10.1080=00986440590473290 Data Acquisition and Control of a 22 L B. Braun Fermenter Using LabVIEW HANJING HUANG TINGYUE GU Department of Chemical Engineering, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio MURRAY MOO-YOUNG Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada The flexible and automatic monitoring and control of a 22 L B. Braun Biostat C fermenter using LabVIEW software were achieved by establishing a serial interface between the fermenter’s control unit and a personal computer. This setup was also used for the on-line monitoring of the DO change in a custom-made 50 L airlift bioreactor. Keywords: Bioreactor control; Data acquisition; LabVIEW; Airlift bioreactor Introduction Fermentation is a very complicated process, and feedback control of fermentation is a useful strategy to guarantee a successful run. LabVIEW software is a powerful software program for data acquisition and control with increasing popularity. It sup-ports IEEE488 (GPIB), RS232=422, and VXI, as well as plug-in A=D, D=A, and digital I=O boards (Jamal, 1994). This work utilized LabVIEW to achieve flexible monitoring and control of a 22 L (15 L working volume) B. Braun Biostat C fermenter (B. Braun Biotech International, GmbH, Melsungen, Germany). Experimental Setup LabVIEW Software and Personal Computer The graphical programming environment LabVIEW (LabVIEW for Windows, Version 4.1, National Instruments, Austin, Tex.) ran on a Pentium personal computer with Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. User-written LabVIEW Received 6 September 2002; in final form 26 June 2003. Address correspondence to Tingyue Gu, Department of Chemical Engineering, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. E-mail: gu@ohio.edu  137  H. Huang et al. programs are called ‘‘virtual instruments’’ (VIs). VIs have three main parts: the front panel, block diagram, and icon=connector. The front