Genome Sequence Laboratories

Latest large Carrier chiller application satisfies stringent demands of human genome sequence laboratories

Eleven 30 Series Carrier chillers, two Carrier dry coolers and six hundred Carrier unit coolers will provide seven megawatts of cooling for the first phase of the proposed 27,000 sq metre extension to the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus outside Cambridge. This is the largest single application of Carrier Global Chillers in the UK in recent months.

The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus has played a pivotal role in the Human Genome Project and is now expanding as it moves on to converting the basic genetic information into knowledge that will underpin the development of new medicines and therapies. A world-leading site is envisaged.

This extremely prestigious order was worth approximately £1 million pounds to Toshiba Carrier UK. A number of aspects of the application take advantage of some of the attractive features of the Global Chiller and of Carrier’s European manufacturing and test laboratory in Montluel, France.

The Global Chiller’s small footprint was considered particularly important as the new buildings are intensively serviced and space is at a premium in the plant areas. As the site is in a sensitive, rural location on the outskirts of a quiet university city the planning constraints are considerable and include very tight noise controls. The chillers have been supplied with a complete factory-installed acoustic package,

Unusually, and perhaps most striking of all, all of the equipment has been individually laboratory sound tested and fully performance tested at the Montluel plant with the client’s compliance officers in attendance. Of course, Carrier is unusual among European manufacturers in being able to offer this level of service and support to its clients.

The proposed Campus extension has three main components:

Academic buildings (10,000 sq metres)
Ancillary space (3000 sq metres)
An innovation centre, for start-up businesses (5000 sq metres), and grow- on space for developing businesses (9000 sq metres).There will be no manufacturing on-site.

The first phase of construction will be completed in Spring 2005..

The whole facility will be operational twenty-four hours a day, year round. It therefore needs a high level of reliability and a great deal of back-up capacity from all of its services – 100% in the case of the chillers. There are six new buildings and air conditioning has been required in five of them.

Three, one megawatt Carrier chillers serve the research support facilities, supplying cooling for a ducted air conditioning system which provides a mix of variable and constant air volumes to forty different rooms.

A major biological computing centre (the Data Centre) is at the heart of the Campus and is an exceptionally highly serviced building. It has a central emergency generator and a power absorption density of 2000 Watts per sq metre. Four chillers serve this facility in conjunction with two dry coolers that are used to obtain the energy-saving benefits of free cooling at low ambient temperatures. An up-flow and down-flow distribution pattern of unit coolers has been installed above the banks of computers to create a curtain of cooled air in front of them.

The new laboratories are served by two chillers providing chilled water to a combination of variable and constant supply air systems plus fan coil units for the back-up support offices.

The remaining two chillers serve the Ancillary building, which provides site services, conference rooms and recreation facilities, including a restaurant and sports and fitness facilities.

The main contractor is Mace, the mechanical services contractor is Axima Building Services Ltd (formerly Sulzer Infra UK) and the services consultant is Faber Maunsell.

The Wellcome Trust is an independent research funding charity established in 1936 under the will of the tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends over £400 million per annum.

The Human Genome Project is an international collaboration to map and decipher the information contained within the human genome. Twenty research groups from six countries (Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and USA) are involved. Data from the Human Genome Project is available free to researchers worldwide at http://www.ensembl.org.