Finding Real Solutions for Balancing Sample Integrity and Energy Consumption

Alex Esmon, Dr., Thermo Fisher Scientific

Energy consumption and reduction methodologies are focal areas for many organizations through targeted programs and initiatives tasked with finding ways to reduce energy usage. Purpose-built storage equipment designed and manufactured to maintain cold or frozen temperatures are often part of the scope of these initiatives, specifically refrigerators, freezers and cryopreservation systems.

In 2007, The US EPA Office of Air and Radiation initiated a program designed to outline criteria for Energy Star-like specification for laboratory refrigerators and freezers. The goal of the program was to provide straightforward standards whereby laboratory refrigerators and freezers could be classified, based around ASHRAE Standard 72. In 2012, this initiative was expanded to include ultra low temperature (ULT) freezers, with the assistance of the US DOE.

As of March 2013, there are no Energy Star-like criteria for laboratory grade cold storage products because there is still no clear path on how to balance two important factors: required performance for sample integrity and energy consumption. Laboratory grade storage is designed to meet stringent regulations and standards from such associations, organizations and accrediting bodies as USP, AABB, FDA, ARC , WHO, JHACO, CDC or CAP. These recommendations and guidelines are in place to ensure that critical products and samples such as vaccines, blood, diagnostic kits, drug intermediates, etc. are kept viable and at maximum efficacy. To meet these storage guidelines requires products that regulate temperature efficiently and recover quickly during standard usage—often this means using energy to drive these complex refrigeration systems.

So how do you and your organization deal with balancing performance and energy consumption? This session will seek to open up this topic for broad discussion with sharing of best practices as well as foster an arena for sharing of ideas and concepts that can make an impact today in your energy footprint as well as lead to better solutions in the future.

Biography:

Dr. Alex Esmon is the Global Product Manager for Cryopreservation Equipment and Applications for the Laboratory Equipment Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific, providing expertise on issues related to cold storage to the global research community. He holds a PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where his studies focused on developmental processes as impacted by light and gravity in model plant systems. Alex performed his post-doctoral work at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he studied innate immune responses in mammalian models systems. Alex worked in a laboratory setting for over ten years before joining Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2007.

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