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Hello Labnetwork,</div>
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In our nanofab at Vanderbilt, we are looking at ways to reduce our nitrogen usage, and I wanted to ask for any recommendations, success stories, or failures that might help in our search.</div>
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For background, we use 5N “house” N2 for purging catastrophic scrubbers, point-of-use scrubbers, gas cabinets, VMBs, and some vacuum pumps 24/7. Additionally, we have on-demand usage at wet chemical hoods and various tools, but the most significant users are
the constant-purge items listed above.</div>
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Our N2 is supplied from a large tank next to our building that is periodically filled from a truck to provide 5N “house” nitrogen, and then we have a set of purifiers to give us 6N “process” nitrogen for specific tools. This was part of an original design
for flexibility with future lab growth.</div>
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We’re already trying to cut back on the on-demand needs and only turning hoods on and off as needed for example, but we don’t really have the same options for the gas delivery and abatement systems.</div>
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We’re also looking at ideas such as a hybrid approach like putting the scrubbers onto a nitrogen generator that may not need the same purity requirements, but this is a new area for us.</div>
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I can provide specific usage numbers privately if it helps, but we are a nominally 10,000 sqft facility (half under filtration, half service areas).</div>
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Thanks for any suggestions!</div>
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Ben</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; color: black; line-height: 18.9px;">Ben W. Schmidt, Ph.D.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; color: black; line-height: 14.7px;">Cleanroom Manager<br>
Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering</span></p>
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