Dear Spinlanders,
We have a helium recovery system on the UW-Madison campus that is being reviewed in some detail. It will be helpful to get information about recovery systems elsewhere. If you are willing to answer a few questions below, that would be great. I'll summarize the responses:
1. Briefly describe the instruments you are recovering helium from.
2. Briefly describe the recovery system you are using. Vendor specifics would be helpful.
3. What is your average percent recovery?
4. What is your average downtime on the recovery system (where you are getting 0% recovery)?
5. What is the percent recovery when everything is working right?
6. Briefly describe maintenance of the system. Is it a real bother, or pretty easy? Expensive? Is there good monitoring in place for troubleshooting?
Please label anything you don't want in a summary, and I'll leave it out (including if you prefer your complete email).
For us -- Chemistry at UW-Madison -- answers are as follows:
1) 7 NMR spectrometers from 300 to 600 MHz.
2) We have a campus centralized recovery system. Helium is captured in a large bag in our basement, and is regularly pushed via underground plumbing to the recovery facility approx 1/4 mile away. Don't know vendor. Other locations on campus have He recapture done similarly, plumbed to the same recovery facility.
3) Our average % recovery over last three years is ~ 20% (guesstimate).
4) Our average downtime over the last three years is > 50%, due to construction interrupting our underground plumbing to the recovery facility.
5) % recovery when we're hooked up and all working is likely around 60% (guesstimate; we are not currently recovering during fills).
6) Maintenance is performed by the University's FP&M. Cost is uncertain. Monitoring the transfer between buildings for troubleshooting is problematic.
Thanks much in advance for your help!
Charlie
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Charles G. Fry, Ph.D. Tel: (608)262-3182
Director, MR Facility Fax: (608)262-0381
Chem. Dept., 1101 University Ave, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706 USA email: fry_at_chem.wisc.edu<mailto:fry_at_chem.wisc.edu>
Received on Wed Aug 21 2019 - 08:53:31 MST