Solutions for Global Health and Well-Being

From investigating mercury-laden tuna sushi in Manhattan to high- profile recalls of contaminated toys and international concern over the quality of water and air in the 2008 Olympic Village, meeting the analytical challenges in this era of greater globalization is increasingly complex. The challenge is compounded as laboratories must do more with fewer resources while providing the data to address the perceived gaps in the safety of our food, water, and children’s products. Concurrently, other researchers are racing to develop commercially viable renewable energy sources to appease organizations and consumers who are reeling at the economic and environmental consequences of our global dependence on fossil fuels.

From the vantage point of an analytical instrumentation maker with more than 70 years of substantial expertise in tackling the analytical challenges we face as a society, there is a common thread: new and improved instrumentation is just the beginning of the solution. Applications know-how, methods development, training, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are integral to ensuring the quality processes and accurate reporting needed to meet the ever-changing regulatory requirements.

Overcoming challenges head-on

A novel approach to meeting these challenges is the EcoAnalytix™ initiative from PerkinElmer (Shelton, CT). EcoAnalytix is a collaborative problem-solving program that bridges the gap between instrumentation and answers by creating application-based solutions to improve the business environment while supporting local, regional, and global initiatives that contribute to healthy ecosystems worldwide.

EcoAnalytix combines new, adjacent, and existing technologies into platforms with the appropriate consumables and reagents all supported through intuitive SOPs and extensive applications support to give laboratories the means to improve efficiency, productivity, and compliance. Current examples of the initiative in action include solutions for analysis of water, food, children’s products, biofuels, and solar energy development.

Critical to the initiative is providing a responsive infrastructure to rapidly meet identified analytical gaps. To that end, EcoAnalytix encompasses dedicated application development centers located across the globe to address unmet industry needs and support scientists in developing economies.

EcoAnalytix in action: Renewable energy solutions

EcoAnalytix is already supporting technologies based on biomass, biofuels, and solar power in the rapidly growing renewable energy market.

EcoAnalytix solutions are vital to laboratories in the evolving biofuels segment where there is a limited base of both applications knowledge and experienced analysts. Although there are prescribed methodologies for assessing biofuel products, the methods are new and there is little industry experience with them. Through the EcoAnalytix initiative, a dedicated team of experts is focused on packaged solutions and applications support that enable laboratories to test conventional feedstocks and alternatives such as cellulose for ethanol production and algae for biodiesel production while ensuring compliance and delivery of quality biofuel products.

PerkinElmer has introduced two EcoAnalytix Biodiesel Application Platforms, one designed to address the U.S. ASTM D-6751-07, and one designed to address the European standard EN 14214. These platforms help manufacturers ensure biodiesel quality and meet their regulatory requirements. The ASTM platform includes the EcoAnalytix FAME Biodiesel Analyzer for analysis of fatty acid methyl esters, while both platforms share the EcoAnalytix Trace Metals Biodiesel Analyzer for testing Group I and Group II metals and phosphorus and the EcoAnalytix Glycerin & Methanol Analyzer for the analysis of free and total glycerin and residual alcohol.