Compressed Air Venturi Pumps Provide Consistent Laboratory
Vacuum Using Existing Service
Rick Boswell, P.R.B. Planners
The use of compressed air venturi pumps provides a
consistent vacuum in a laboratory environment using compressed air.
This system eliminates another piped service to the laboratory and
is a direct alternative to water aspiration and/or central vacuum
systems. These vacuum pumps eliminate contaminated oil and associated
disposal costs from a traditional central vacuum system, and eliminate
the use of water as a method for vacuum derivation.
Using an existing or key central piped service, additional cost
is kept to a minimum by not installing yet another service. Capital
expense is initially higher, but with virtually no ongoing maintanance
costs, the life cycle costs for this system is extremely low. If
the system is used to replace water aspiration, the elimination
of additional water turrets, cup sinks, and the additional plumbing
is a major gain for bench simplicity. The added benefit of lower
plumbing maintanance due to the high rate of water flow also helps
keep the life cycle costs low.
This whole building system improves the efficiency of the building
by integrating a single piped service to many different uses. An
analysis of central vacuum to venturi pumps will be presented that
will indicate capital costs for installation as well as ongoing
maintenance costs. A similar comparison for water aspiration will
also be shown.
This poster presentation has a direct correlation to Labs21 as it introduces
a technology that is user demand driven versus being constant and
has the potential to use less energy and resources than competing
technologies. It's environmental impact is less than other technologies
as it does not use treated water, nor does it introduce any additional
contaminates into the environment beyond that which it extracts
from the laboratory process.
Biography:
Rick Boswell has
a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. He has been the laboratory
manager for the Queen's University Department of Chemistry in Kingston,
Ontario, Canada, for the last 19 years. He was one of the innovative
forces behind the succesful Chernoff Hall Chemistry building at
Queen's, which was the recipient of the 2003 High Honours Laboratory
of the Year award from R&D Magazine. In 2002, he established
his own laboratory consulting firm, P.R.B. Planners Inc., where
his focus is on non-traditional solutions to common problems in
laboratory planning. He also specializes in integrating environmental health
and safety into laboratory planning strategies for a seamless approach
in this often overlooked area.
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