Department: Department of Agricultural Microbiology

Date of purchasing: 31 May 2011

Gas Chromatograph – CSI 200, with FID (Flame Ionization Detector), will be used to measure nitrogenase activity by acetylene reduction method. The enzyme nitrogenase is produced by N2 fixing bacteria, both symbiotic (Rhizobium, Bradyrhizobium) and free-living in soil (Azotobacter, Azospirillum). Also, this apparatus will be used to assess nitrogen fixation by bacteria in different soils

Department: Department of Biochemistry and Crop Quality

Date of purchasing: 2 March 2011

Heidolph Laborota 20 Control Large-Scale Rotary Evaporator offers safe, unattended operation for large volume applications. It is designed for continuous use and can be operated by one person. Laborota 20 Control features integrated vacuum and temperature controller, individually programmable ramps for all parameters, allowing for optimal distillation settings.

Advantages of this equipment are high distillation rates, reduced exposure to solvent vapor and spills, metal frame and safety glass guard hood covering the bath and condenser. It will be used mainly for distillation of water and organic solvents mixtures from plant extracts and partly purified plant extracts

Department: Department of Agrometeorology and Applied Infomatics

Date of purchasing: 8 December 2010

Computing cluster is built on an innovative computational and service infrastructure. The  cluster for provides flexible and scalable access to different kind of applications and also includes the needs of specific researchers groups. In particular, it offers following service features:

- remote working with interactive applications (e.g. Statistica);

- run on-demand virtual as a dedicated environment for user applications.

User access to the system is carried out in a uniform manner, independent of its physical location. This is allowed by the resource management layer, which is responsible for directing user requests to the appropriate local clusters, and subsequently to their hubs. Servers will be used for systems for DSS and GIS analysis.

Department: Department of Agrometeorology and Applied Infomatics

Date of purchasing: 28 October 2010

DSS Software in an application developed by the Agricultural University of Athens, Laboratory of Agribusiness Management. A web based spatial decision support system (web-SDDS) is the bio-energy decision-making tool which consists of a modelling section and a geographical information system (GIS) both embedded in an interface accessible from the web (programmed using TCL - Tool Command Language for integrating heterogeneous applications through a scripting interface). The DSS contains technical, economic, and cartographic information to evaluate alternative bio-energy systems, and to determine the optimal size, location and biomass crop cultivations subject to technical and resource constraints. At the optimal solution, it provides spatial and economic information on the bio-energy unit as well as on biomass raw material corresponding to the user-defined parameters. The number and location of land units cultivating biomass is determined by regional supply micro-economic models.