Improvements to Indoor Air Quality for a High-Rise Laboratory Facility Including a Vivarium

Sean Convery, P.E., Cator, Ruma & Associates

The north tower of the Research 1 Complex of the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus is a 9-story building plus a vivarium in the basement. This 300,000 square foot tower houses research laboratories, offices, and a 25,000-SF vivarium. Odors from the Vivarium and other sources have been noticed throughout the building. Cator, Ruma & Associates was hired to perform investigations of indoor air quality. While there were several causes contributing to indoor air quality issues within the building, this abstract will focus on three items that were observed and became the main items to remedy:

  • The freight elevator shaft interconnects all floors in the building to the vivarium interstitial space. It was observed that this elevator shaft was acting as a 'plunger,' causing air that contains animal odors to be drawn into the elevator shaft and pushed out onto upper floors. This was verified with pressure monitoring instruments. The source of animal odors in the interstitial space was predominantly leaking ductwork. The remedy that is in construction is creating an elevator vestibule in the interstitial space that is positively pressurized to keep contaminated air from getting to the elevator.
  • Freezer maintenance operations had been occurring adjacent to the outside air intake plenum in the main air handler room. The maintenance performed on these freezers typically included soldering and brazing of the copper coils in the freezers, thereby emitting smoke and odors into the mechanical room. With double-door access into the outside air intake plenum adjacent to this freezer maintenance zone, the odors were pulled into the plenum, and distributed throughout the building. The remedy for this is to construct a maintenance room in that location to create proper pressure cascades. An intervening vestibule is being built that acts as a positive pressure buffer between the new maintenance room and the outside air intake plenum, while the maintenance room is kept at a negative pressure to maintain proper cascade.

Vacuum pump discharge location: The discharge of the vacuum pump currently exits the building through the north wall, approximately ten feet above grade. While this meets code, it was observed that due to specific wind conditions around the building, the discharge of that system was often forced downward to the ground, allowing those contaminants to get pulled back into the building through the front doors. The remedy for this condition was to extend the vacuum pump discharge pipe up to the next floor, and capture the discharge into a thimble connection to the laboratory exhaust system. Additional measures were taken for safety, such that if the exhaust system fails, the vacuum pump will shut down.

Biography:

Sean T. Convery joined Cator, Ruma & Associates, Co., a mechanical/electrical engineering consulting firm of 84 persons, in 1995, and is a Principal in our Mechanical Department. He has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and is a Professional Engineer in Colorado. Sean has a broad array of experience in the design of mechanical systems focusing on higher education campuses and research laboratories. Recent laboratories include the Colorado State University (CSU) Research Innovation Center (LEED Gold), CSU Engineering 2 Building (LEED Gold Pending), University of Colorado (CU) Boulder Systems Biotechnology Building (LEED Platinum), and CU Denver Anschutz Medical Campus Research Complex Energy Efficiency Upgrades. Sean was a presenter at the past two Labs21 Conferences and has received Engineering Excellence Awards from ACEC in Colorado for his designs at complex BSL-3 campuses.

 

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