| Biography | |
|---|---|
 Prof. Elfed Lewis Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre, Republic of Ireland |
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| Title: A Heterocore-Structured Plastic Optical Fibre Sensor for Microalgal Bioethanol Production | |
| Abstract: A novel long period grating (LPG) inscribed balloon-shaped heterocore-structured plastic optical fibre (POF) sensor is described and experimentally demonstrated for real-time measurement of the ultra-low concentrations of ethanol in microalgal bioethanol production applications. The heterocore structure is established by coupling a 250 µm core diameter POF between two 1000 µm diameter POFs, thus representing a large core—small core—large core configuration. Before coupling as a heterocore structure, the sensing region or small core fibre (SCF; i.e., 250 µm POF) is modified by polishing, LPG inscription, and macro bending into a balloon shape to enhance the sensitivity of the sensor. The sensor was characterized for ethanol–water solutions in the ethanol concentration ranges of 20 to 80 %v/v, 1 to 10 %v/v, 0.1 to 1 %v/v, and 0.00633 to 0.0633 %v/v demonstrating a maximum sensitivity of 3 x 106 %/RIU, a resolution of 7.9 X 10-6 RIU, and a limit of detection (LOD) of 9.7 X 10-6 RIU. The experimental results are included for the intended application of bioethanol production using microalgae. The characterization was performed in the ultra-low-level ethanol. The experimentally verified, extremely high sensitivity and resolution and very low LOD corresponding to the initial rate of bioethanol production using microalgae of this sensor design, combined with ease of fabrication, low cost, and wide measurement range, makes it a promising candidate to be incorporated into the bioethanol production industry as a real-time sensing solution as well as in other ethanol sensing and/or RI sensing applications. | |
| Biography: Elfed Lewis graduated with BEng (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Liverpool University in 1978 and was awarded his PhD from the same institution in 1987. He is Associate Professor and Director of the Optical Fibre Sensors Research Centre at University of Limerick, which he founded in 1996. He is Fellow of Institute of Physics, IET and Senior member IEEE. He has authored and co authored more than 190 journal papers and made in excess of 300 contributions to international conferences. He currently holds 9 patents on Optical Fibre Sensor Devices. In 2005 he was recipient of the University of Limerick Special Achievement in Research Award and was a Fulbright Scholar with CREOL (University of Central Florida) in 2008. He was Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE Sensors Council for the period July 2013-June 2015 and General Chair of the recent IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WFIoT) (2019) held at University of Limerick, Ireland. | |
