Managing any laboratory is a demanding task. With so many priorities to consider, including meeting deadlines, maintaining equipment, and controlling costs, it can be easy for inefficiencies to go unnoticed.
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For cryogenic storage facilities in particular, this is why it is so important to ensure the laboratory is operating efficiently. It is not only about cost control or streamlining processes, but also about maintaining high standards, ensuring employee safety, and protecting valuable samples.
Below are key recommendations to help laboratory managers avoid the hidden costs of inefficiency.
Cut your liquid nitrogen usage
It may seem unexpected coming from one of the United Kingdom’s leading suppliers of liquid nitrogen, but Air Products actively helps customers identify ways to reduce consumption. Lower usage reduces one of the largest ongoing operating costs, while fewer deliveries also support sustainability objectives and reduce environmental impact.
Reducing liquid nitrogen usage ultimately comes down to making the right choices.
Choose your equipment carefully
Laboratory equipment plays a critical role in overall efficiency. While lower-cost equipment may offer initial savings, equipment that is not well-suited to operational requirements or not fit for purpose can result in significantly higher long-term costs. This is particularly true for cryogenic freezers.
For example, a cryogenic freezer adapted from a design intended for liquid storage, or one that stores liquid nitrogen in a jacket with a dry vapor storage area, may be less expensive to purchase. However, with a smaller reservoir, it consumes more liquid nitrogen through evaporation and requires more frequent refilling, often every one to two days rather than every four to seven days for an efficient vapor storage freezer.
In addition, the freezer design is fundamentally compromised, resulting in a hold time of only two to four days compared with the 13 to 21 days offered by efficient vapor storage freezers. This also means additional cover is required during holiday periods to maintain sample safety.
It quickly becomes clear how inefficiencies and associated costs can accumulate.
Maximize your use of space
For many laboratories and clinics, space is limited, making efficient use of available space essential. A well-organized laboratory is inherently more efficient, but effective space utilization often depends on equipment selection.
Air Products frequently encounters laboratory storage rooms filled with dewars spread across the floor, consuming valuable space and making sample access and management difficult.
These dewars typically require manual filling with liquid nitrogen, increasing the risk of spills, operator safety hazards, and potential floor damage. In addition, individual alarms often need to be retrofitted separately.
By contrast, investing in freezers designed for high-volume, long-term vapor storage at temperatures down to –190 °C, such as those from the MVE range recommended by Air Products, can deliver significant benefits.
Advanced features, including automated monitoring, auto-fill systems, and internal carousels that bring samples to the operator, improve accessibility, reduce physical strain, and streamline operations. These systems also allow greater sample volumes to be stored within a similar or smaller footprint, maximizing available space.
Reduce the risks to samples
Selecting the right equipment also significantly improves sample security. High-quality liquid nitrogen freezers offer extended hold times, increasing safety margins, and allowing more time to respond to events such as power failures.
For example, the MVE HEco™ Series provides hold times ranging from 13 to 27 days. These freezers also use advanced insulation technology to maintain a highly uniform temperature profile throughout the storage chamber.
Improving freezer quality and efficiency can therefore have a positive impact on operating costs, productivity, and institutional reputation.
Think about layout and location
Laboratory efficiency can often be improved by reviewing layout, ensuring frequently used equipment is easily accessible, and that there is sufficient space for safe movement. In cryogenic laboratories, layout and location are especially important for controlling operating costs.
Where reconfiguration is possible, or when designing a new facility, positioning freezers as close as possible to the liquid nitrogen source is essential. Ideally, the laboratory should be located on the ground floor against an external wall, with space outside for a liquid nitrogen storage tank that can be easily accessed for deliveries.
This arrangement allows for a short pipeline, typically using a Super Insulated Vacuum Line, with stable pressures and minimal liquid nitrogen losses during filling.
It also reduces the need for complex and costly HVAC systems, requiring only basic ventilation or extraction. In addition, it eliminates inefficient and potentially hazardous practices such as moving heavy liquid nitrogen vessels through the building.
Ask for expert help
Every laboratory is different, and ideal conditions are not always achievable. However, there are often opportunities to improve efficiency by taking a different approach. This is an area where the Air Products Biomedical team has extensive experience.
In many cases, Air Products specialists have helped customers improve laboratory efficiency in ways they did not initially consider possible, streamlining operations and significantly reducing ongoing costs.
Acknowledgments
This article was produced using materials originally authored by Air Products.
About Air Products PLC
Air Products touch the lives of consumers around the globe in positive ways every day. With approximately 16,000 employees and operations in 50 countries, we serve customers across a wide range of industries from food and beverage to medical, energy, and transportation. We supply a unique portfolio of atmospheric and process gases, equipment, and services.
Founded in 1940, Air Products has built a reputation for its innovative culture, operational excellence, and commitment to safety and the environment. Our passionate, talented, and committed employees from a diversity of backgrounds are driven by Air Products’ higher purpose to create innovative solutions that benefit the environment, enhance sustainability and address the challenges facing customers, communities, and the world.
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