Petroleum & Chemistry Research Solutions

As symbols of the Nation’s technological progress, research facilities are essential to the discoveries and breakthroughs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Thousands of public and private sector scientists and engineers from industries such as pharmaceutical, biomedical, manufacturing, and biotechnology use all types of laboratories and instruments to advance the frontiers of knowledge.
Proper laboratory room ventilation is an absolute requirement for maintaining the health, safety and well-being of laboratory facility occupants. Inadequate ventilation poses serious health and safety risks to the occupants of a laboratory room due to the wide range of hazardous airborne substances that may be present at times within the room. In addition, an inadequately designed or operating laboratory ventilation system can create a hazard beyond the laboratory rooms since it can spread potentially dangerous substances throughout an entire facility.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
Since a ventilation system designer cannot know all possible laboratory operations, chemicals to be utilized, and their potential for release of fumes and other toxic agents, one air exchange rate (air changes per hour) cannot be specified that will meet all conditions. Furthermore, air changes per hour is not the appropriate concept for designing contaminant control systems.
Active sensing of air quality in individual laboratories is an alternative approach for dealing with the variability of appropriate ventilation rates, particularly when energy efficiency is important or when less may be known about the hazard level. With this approach, the minimum airflow rate is varied based on sensing the laboratory’s actual air quality level or “air cleanliness.”

Energy consumption:
Laboratories are normally designed as once-through systems, without recirculation. Conditioning, supplying and exhausting the large volumes of air used in laboratories consumes sizeable quantities of energy. Laboratories must be designed so that energy efficiency gains do not reduce safety and comfort.

Experimental Fume Hoods Containment
Fume hoods are safety devices, used to contain chemicals with long-term exposure hazards. Fume containment is critical to the safety of laboratory workers. Several factors are involved with the proper containment of fumes, including face velocity, cross-drafts, and work practices.
Laboratory rooms are subject to high makeup airflow rates, especially if the room has multiple fume hoods. And, high room airflow rates can often result in appreciable air currents within the rooms. Research has established that room air currents (termed cross currents) can be very detrimental to effective fume hood containment. Even relatively low air currents passing in front of a fume hood with an open sash, can draw fumes out from the hood interior.
Exhausted Air Dilution
Many HVAC designs require that fresh air intakes be located away from any possible contamination. By placing the process exhaust stream away from these intakes and adding dilution air, the design criteria can be achieved. Many locations require that exhaust stream plumes must rise 15 or more meters higher than any air supply connections. Adding outdoor air to the exhaust is the most common approach because it provides the larger plume rise and some internal dilution.

Corrosion Resistance
Corrosion can be a big problem in the HVAC industry, particularly in, fume-scrubber systems, acid fume hood laboratories. Corrosive material requires special ventilation controls in order to minimize exposure to the material.
Some chemicals such as perchloric acid require special extraction system due to extremely corrosive & instability nature which may lead to explosion if not handled properly.

Noise Level
Sound associated with HVAC systems and equipment is generated from multiple sources. All operating equipment generates sound by the inherent vibration of its components.
Laboratory rooms with high air change rates and high chemical fume hood exhaust rates are particularly prone to higher ambient sound levels. The sound generated by HVAC components such as supply and exhaust terminal units which must be in close proximity to the room, and supply air diffusers is mainly dependent on the airflow velocity through these units. The higher the airflow velocity, the higher will be the sound power level generated by the units

Our Offering

  • Proper Design Services as per the international codes & standards to insure proper ventilation rates each part of the facility. Experimental labs should be negatively pressurized to prevent any fumes escaping the lab area into other parts of the building.
  • Accutrol Air Valves:
    • Low-Pressure Drop: Reducing the overall pressure drop in a ventilation system allows the system to be run at a lower static pressure. This requires less fan horsepower resulting in a significant reduction in energy cost, building’s environmental impact, carbon footprint and lowering noise levels in the duct, making the building environment more pleasant to work in.
    • Occupancy Control, ventilation rates could be reduced during the un-occupied hours, resulting in reducing the energy consumption of the HVAC system.
    • Accutrol Air Valves along with Fume Hood control system to be installed for monitoring & control of the fume hood face velocity. Fume hood control system includes fume hood monitor, sash sensor(s) & in-use/standby occupancy sensor.
    • Fast & accurate response to the Air Quality signal received from the IAQ system & change the ventilation rates accordingly to guarantee the integrity of the air.
    • Low-Noise Valve by design: The inspiration for the design of the AccuValve originated from analysis of the design of a silencer
    • Demand Static Pressure Reset Control functionality as per ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Without Additional Hardware.
    • Accuvalves housing for corrosive applications may be constructed from different types of corrosion resistance materials based on the project requirements
      • Valve Housing SS304, SS316 or PFA Coated 304SS
      • Shaft Bearings: Teflon
      • Sensor Tubing: PVC or Viton Rubber
  • MK Plastics Hazardous Extract Fans & K-KORE Energy Recovery Plenum:
    • High Efficiency Extract Fans requires lower horse power to achieve the building ventilation requirements. All MK Plastics are AMCA certified for performance & has the highest FEG (fan efficiency grade) in the market.
    • High Plume fans using the Bernoulli concept where the fans are designed so that air speed to be in the range (3000-7000 fpm), with this range a low-pressurization zone will be created inside the stack nozzle , as a result fresh air shall be entrained, this new amount of air will ensure the dilution of the exhausted air, and will cause the mass of air to be increased, giving the existing air an extra momentum so that the exhausted air height will be increased without the need for long stack.
    • Revolutionary plenum solution for Energy Recovery Units that is fabricated from composite material, some of the features for the K-KORE plenums
      • Lightweight construction. Up to 40% weight savings vs. steel construction.
      • True no-thru-metal construction throughout the entire cabinet depth.
      • Unlimited salt-spray resistance
      • Highly Corrosion resistance.
      • Flame Spread index of less than 25 when tested according to UL 723.
    • Corrosive Resistance FRP Fans by MK-Plastics:
      Although HAVC equipment can be made of coated metals, stainless steel or ‘exotic’ metals such as Monel and Hastelloy, FRP is an economical alternative as well providing superior resistance to the majority of corrosive elements. Other than its primary function of providing outstanding corrosion resistant properties, fiberglass can also offer the following advantages:

      • The life expectancy of FRP material can range from anywhere from 25 years to 50 years.
      • Very high strength-to weight ratio. Pound-per-pound basis, FRP is stronger than steel.
      • Extremely durable to impact or scratches, the surface will not corrode.
      • Weighs up to 30% less compared to equipment made out of steel and metal alloys.
      • Price advantage over stainless steel.
      • Less maintenance – no repainting required due to corrosion and rusting
    • MK-Plastics Plastifer® MVT Perchloric Acid Exhaust System:
      Operates, using the principle of induced draft incorporating a blower that is external to the perchloric acid vapor exhaust. This external blower injects clean outdoor air into a venturi (incorporated in the exhaust stack) which induces flow from the perchloric acid fume hood. Integral to MVT is a wash system located at the discharge of the venturi stack. This wash system floods the venturi with water which dissolves and flushes away any of the perchloric crystals that are deposited on the smooth interior of the fiberglass stack
  • MSA Indoor Air Quality System:
    • For monitoring of the air quality in each critical area of the building. The system shall generate a proportional signal corresponding to the air quality of the controlled area.
    • Changing the ventilation rates based on the air quality rather than rely on a single ventilation rate would be more energy efficient.

Following are various types of critical environment areas / applications

Laboratory Space:

  • Accutrol high speed Accuvalves and Fume Hood Control System provide precise, safe, energy saving airflow control in laboratories, meeting the demands of low and high-density laboratory fume hood designed spaces by achieving the following:

    • Pressurization Control (negative pressure)
    • Fume Hood Containment control
    • Ventilation Demand based on IAQ system signal
    • Temperature Control
  • MK Plastics High Plume Fans used for the safe extraction of the corrosive fumes generated inside the laboratory space.
  • MSA Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) system to monitor the air integrity inside the lab area & generates a ventilation demand signal accordingly. This signal shall be used by the Accuvalves to modulate the lab space ventilation rates accordingly.
  • Accutrol Tracking pair solution achieves full airflow control and the high air change rates required in support spaces. The system can achieve the following requirements:
  • Pressurization Control (Positive Pressure)
  • Ventilation Demand
  • Temperature Control
  • MSA Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) system to monitor the air integrity inside the support area & generates a ventilation demand signal accordingly. This signal shall be used by the Accuvalves to modulate the ventilation rates accordingly.