Hi All,
I received some more information and there was a question on the LN
plant following my post yesterday.
WRT generating liquid Nitrogen we are operating a Stirling Cryogenics
Mini Compact 100 purchased in 1991
(
http://www.stirlingcryogenics.com/home/). There are newer models
available which produce between 5L to 20L per day output. The current
version of our plant is the StirLIN-1 Compact. The maintenance on the
plant itself is not complicated, is performed every 6000 hours of
operation (about once every 10.5 months) and takes about a day for the
cryogenerator and PSA. The maintenance kit runs about $2000.00. There
are major maintenance events recommended at 50,000 and 100,000 hrs which
will run in the neighborhood of $10,000 and are done by Stirling. We
have a local company service the I-R air compressor which runs around
$1000.00 annually. The plant wants power (480V 3 phase at 50A) and
chilled water. A private room away from humans is recommended. The plant
self starts after power failures and interruption in other utilities
(chilled water and A/C). About all one does is transfer LN from the
production dewar to the dispensing dewars daily. It is low pressure
storage so it takes about an hour to fill a 230L tank.
Sebastian Kemper talked with a sales rep from Quantum Design at a
conference in Europe. He received a estimate on annual maintenance.
Quantum Design's list included two kits to self rebuild the purifier and
liquifier at $7000 EUR each and a compressor rebuild kit that runs
around 400 EUR. In terms of USD that would be approximately $20,000 in
basic maintenance costs. QD's quote includes installation but not
plumbing from the magnets to the plant.
The more I look into this the more it looks like I'll be asking the
powers that be around here to buy me a new hat to add to the NMR, Mass
Spec, networking, teaching and LN plant operation ones I already have.
Woohoo! "Thank you Sir, may I have another?"
Walt
--
Walter P. Niemczura, Ph. D.
NMR/Mass Spec. Facility Director
Department of Chemistry
2545 McCarthy Mall
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96822
Ph: 808-956-3113
FAX: 808-956-5908
Email: walt_at_hawaii.edu
Received on Thu Sep 26 2013 - 09:10:56 MST