BioChem
introduced its patented Bioprocess Aeration Control System (BACS) in 2009.
Since
then it has proven its effectiveness, efficiency and reliability in dozens of
applications as a stand alone subsystem to control the production and
distribution of the aeration process.
BACS is not the standard proportional integral (PI) loop utilizing high
speed trial and error based control actions to chase the desired
set-point. Rather BACS is an intelligent
system which actually calculates the volume of air required to maintain the DO
setpoint by analyzing the process metabolism in real-time. In fact, because of system response times, it
is necessary to know what the oxygen demand will be 15 minutes from now in
order to effectively maintain the proper DO concentration. BACS does this. It has a Predictive element in its nature.
With
BioChem's EDI partnership a new more holistic concept to process design and
control was introduced. This new concept
called Symphony
considers
all the critical subsystems required to control the biological treatment
process utilizing digitized intelligence throughout. The goal is to achieve unprecedented economy
and performance while providing practical, actionable information to manage the
plant by incorporating such features as fault detection and isolation (FDI) and
Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM).
Within
the Symphony framework, we decided that it was more informative for our
systems' names to describe not merely the "what" they do, such as
Bioprocess Aeration Control, but the "how and why", such as Predictive Aeration Logic (PAL). As mentioned above, to control something
like the DO level in a very complex, dynamic and nonlinear process, you need to
be predictive. You need a PAL. BACS = Your PAL.