Costs of instruments

Cost of instrumentation for control of recovery section Cost of electricity for pumps Pump costs (total)... 

Adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry has an advantage over graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry in that the metal preconcentration is performed in situ, hence reducing analysis time and risk of contamination. Additional advantages are low cost of instrumentation and maintenance, and the possibility to use adapted instrumentation for online and shipboard monitoring. 

The technique is currently not used as widely as UV, visible and infrared spectrometry partly due to the high cost of instrumentation. However, it is a powerful technique for the characterization of a wide range of natural products, raw materials, intermediates and manufactured items especially if used in conjunction with other spectrometric methods. Its ability to identify major molecular structural features is useful in following synthetic routes and to help establish the nature of competitive products, especially for manufacturers of polymers, paints, organic chemicals and pharmaceuticals. An important clinical application is NMR imaging where a three-dimensional picture of the whole or parts of a patient s body can be built up through the accumulation of proton spectra recorded over many different angles. The technique involves costly instrumentation but is preferable to... 

Quest Diagnostics have established a routine system for testosterone, which has now replaced their other methods of analysis (Goldman et al., poster, US Endocrine Society meeting, San Diego, 2005). The analysis is carried out on a Thermofinnigan TSQ Quantum Ultra operated with an APCI source in the positive-ion mode. They use two transitions, 289—>109 and 289—>97, for the analyte and 294—>112 and 294—> 99 for the 2H5-labeled internal standard. On-line extraction and short retention times allow them to assay several thousand samples per month per instrument, making it cost-effective in spite of the high cost of instrumentation. 

Sampling with fiber optic sensors can be continuous if needed otherwise they can be operated discontinuously, with a lower duty cycle. These sensors could be used for laboratory-based or in situ applications. The cost of instrumentation for fiber optic systems should be 25,000 to 50,000. Sensors would need to be replaced periodically (several weeks to many months), depending upon their design. Sensors using fiber optic probes will be available within 5 years for some applications and within 10 years for some others. Sensors for pH, C02, and 02 are in development now new sensors should be capable of measuring from high concentrations down to 1 part per million for ions and organic materials. Basic research is still required for specific applications. 

The specification of a control scheme and the associated instrumentation for a chemical plant should satisfy several main objectives. First, the plant should operate at all times in a safe manner. Dangerous situations should be detected as early as possible and appropriate action initiated, also the process variables should be maintained within safe operating limits. Second, the plant should operate at the lowest cost of production. Finally, the production rate and the product quality must be maintained within specified operating limits. These objectives may be conflicting, and the final control scheme to be adopted is based upon a realistic and acceptable compromise between the various factors. The main conflict is between the need to design and operate as safe a plant as possible and the desire to produce the chemical at the lowest cost. Safe plant operation can be expensive, both in terms of the capital cost of instrumentation and the annual operating costs, e.g. maintenance. 

The operation of fuel cells has already been described in Section 1.3.5 (Chapter 1). Here, the emphasis will be on the control of these devices. Further research is required to reduce the cost of instruments for all fuel cell systems. For example, a complex fuel cell system can require upward of 100 flow control valves. Even if the cost is only 200 for a typical low-cost commercial valve, this cost can exceed the total cost of alternative electricity generation components by a sizable margin. Transition to high-temperature fuel cells pushes the valve price up as special materials are required, yet low cost is critical for commercial viability and salability of fuel cells if they are ever to move out of the laboratory and into general use. 

Particle analysis is the most informative method to date for the identification of FDR particles. It does, however, suffer from several major disadvantages including high cost of instrumentation and lengthy and tedious procedures requiring specialized staff Since its introduction serious attempts have been made to solve the time problem. These include the use of backscattered electron images, automation of the search procedure, and sample manipulation to pre-concentrate the sample prior to SEM examination.145151... 

Over the past decade, liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (LC/MS) has evolved from being primarily a research tool, available in a limited number of analytical laboratories, to a robust and widely available analytical and investigative technique (1 3). It is now in widespread use in pharmaceutical, food, environmental, and forensic laboratories and is an indispensable tool in biomedical research. At the time of our previous review of this subject (4), few laboratories were using LC/MS in the analysis of chemicals relevant to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). This was due to a number of factors, two of which were the cost of instrumentation and a perception that the technique was difficult to implement in an analytical laboratory. In the intervening years, the costs of basic LC/MS have been reduced, and the instrumentation has become robust and easier to operate. LC/MS is now a mature technique that should be considered by all laboratories that are required to analyze chemicals related to the CWC. 

Even though this is a reasonably sophisticated technique (and one must weigh this point with the cost of instrumentation, maintenance and the need for a highly skilled mass spectrometrist), it nevertheless is a very potent tool in assessing the structural nature of a phospholipid. In Chapter 3 a typical spectrum of a phospholipid was described the information gathered from this pattern can be of enormous help in deciphering the structure. 

The cost of instrumentation is related mainly to equipment type and count rather than to equipment cost. 

During recent years the cost of instruments used in clinical chemistry has greatly increased, and much is now so expensive that it cannot be provided in every independent laboratory, particularly if it is used for only 35-40 hours per week. With modern instrumentation and technology, virtually any analysis becomes feasible—at a price—and the cost-benefit of all investigations is likely to be increasingly scrutinized. It is therefore imperative to consider first what information is required before selecting an analytical method and choosing an appropriate instrument. 

For the detection of dopamine, controlled-potential (potentiostatic) techniques, which are concerned with the study of charge transfer processes at the electrode-solution interface, are favored due to a number of advantages. These include high sensitivity, selectivity towards electroactive species, wide linear range, portability and low cost of instrumentation, speciation capability and a wide range of electrodes which allow assays of unusual environments [29]. 

NMR spectroscopy has also been used to examine water amounts in drug substances. Because of the cost of instrumentation and the precautions needed to minimize external sources of water from the sample, NMR may not be practical as a routine method of water analysis. However, NMR can be used in cross-validation studies to support the primary method. 

Cost of instrument, investment costs of the instrument ( reader )... 

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