PerkinElmer LABWORKS Green™ Provides BioFuel Industry Turnkey Solution for Laboratory Information Management

PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences, a global leader in application-focused measurement and analysis solutions, today announced the introduction of a new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) designed specifically for the growing biofuels industry.

LABWORKS Green™ is a specially tailored version of LABWORKS™ LIMS, targeted to specific functions needed by biodiesel production plants, that monitors the entire manufacturing process from raw material to finished product.

As the use of biofuels becomes more prevalent, the necessity of ensuring the quality of the end product becomes more important. Biofuels analysis monitors key quality indicators in the manufacturing process, such as the presence of glycerin in biodiesel. LABWORKS Green allows biofuels labs to manage process and report work, capture analytical data and automatically generate Certificates of Analysis (COA) to meet global standards.

“LABWORKS Green is another example of how PerkinElmer is addressing biofuels laboratory needs,” said Robert Hudson, director for enterprise software solutions at PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences. “The system is pre-loaded with tools specific to biofuels laboratory needs, enabling them to efficiently monitor and report critical data throughout the purification process.”

The system is cost-effective, requires no maintenance and is expandable to adapt to quickly growing laboratory needs. To get started, labs fill out a simple questionnaire to specify the facility’s location codes for sampling points and then download the complete system onto their server. In addition, PerkinElmer’s global staff of experts can assist with training at either the customer’s own lab or at a PerkinElmer facility.

The regulatory bodies that govern the use and certification of biofuels are increasingly demanding that COA be issued with each lot of material that enters the fuel distribution system. LABWORKS Green provides a complete and simple-to-use COA function that measures whether the product is in specification by comparing the sample results to the regulatory standard. Controls are set to prevent the production of a COA if any parameter fails a specification.

“A high glycerin content can result in a build-up in fuel tanks, clogged fuel systems, injector deposits and filter plugging – which can all result in loss of revenue for the company and in performance problems for the end user,” added Hudson. He noted that LABWORKS Green can also be used to track other critical analyses performed on biodiesel including the concentration of light metals, sulfur and phosphorous as well as the values for flash point, kinematic viscosity and cetane number. “Every producer of biodiesel should be determining and reporting these values to assure that their product meets the appropriate quality standards.”

PerkinElmer is a partner to the biofuels industry, providing analytical tools to ensure the quality of biofuels. PerkinElmer recently introduced four new Biodiesel Gas Chromatography (GC) Turnkey Systems that provide the industry with a choice of high-quality analyzers for the verification of pure biodiesel (B100) to meet ASTM and EN standards. PerkinElmer’s global network of service and support can help biofuels labs with analysis from start to finish.