www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course M143 www.PDHonline.

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compressed schedule cuts into time allocated for design of facility and process

engineering, with the result that energy efficiency improvements get little attention.

• Second, high value for the product puts a premium on reliability of overall production

facility in terms of minimizing production line downtime and defects due to

contamination. This promotes extreme conservatism in clean room design and

operation.

The most significant factor affecting both the initial and operating costs of clean rooms is the

airflow. As industries and markets grow more competitive- and as the unarguable edict of

energy conservation becomes widely accepted in all industries- it is necessary to re-evaluate

existing methods of airflow design, and as part of that review, to consider new ways of

thinking about air handling and the efficacy of newer methods.

1) The first step towards energy efficient design is right classification of the building. For

instance it is not prudent to design the whole building to Class 100 when significant

proportion of the building could be classified as Class 10000. Or in other words a less

critical area must not be provided with high-class classification just for conservatism.

The process specialist should identify and segregate the critical and non-critical

areas judiciously based on the requirements and manufacturer’s recommendations.

2) Capture savings by creating mini clean room environments in a sense that instead of

providing entire area with class 100, if localized workstations of class 100 shall

suffice. Use any available industry benchmarks that may exist for energy efficiency

3) Challenge the room volume. Seek opportunities to evaluate whether conditions

permit to minimize clean room volume: Doing this reduces re-circulation airflow

requirements and the associated energy usage.

4) In planning a clean room facility, zones of cleaner air can be established by

concentrating HEPA filters in a particular ceiling area. Rather than providing a full

filtered ceiling, create class 100 within class 10000 areas. This is more efficient than

the typical class 10000 rooms with class 100 benches and workstations.

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