Middlesex Gases

Articles

Incubators and Carbon Dioxide

What is the value of the contents of an incubator? Can you put a price tag on the cell cultures or the research it took to get them to the point they are now? Of course not, so do not let the cells fall victim to the tricks played by the gas that keeps them alive. Incubators use Carbon Dioxide (CO2) gas. Most gas cylinders will announce how much product they have left in them by indicating that pressure on the contents gauge of the regulator. Carbon Dioxide will do no such thing. It will register full right up to the time it goes empty. Why? Because the CO2 is delivered in liquid form in the tank and the gas in the tank is the vapor pressure from the liquid. So, if there is 50 pounds or 2 pounds of liquid left in the tank it will always read full on the regulator gauge. This holds true for large liquid CO2 dewars as well.

This sounds like a minor issue but I have been the recipient of too many telephone calls from labs that have come in on Monday morning for work to find the contents of the incubators useless because the CO2 ran out over the weekend. I can tell you that this is a crushing blow for a company. There is a very simple cure, an inexpensive insurance if you will, to prevent this catastrophic event.

The options are,

1. Utilize more than one tank to feed the incubators and put them on opposite banks of a switchover manifold. This is a very effective way to ensure the CO2 is in constant supply. When one bank is depleted the manifold will switch to the other bank, continue the gas supply and alarm to notify you of the switch.

2. While option one is the best solution the cost of the switchover system may be out of budget so we have developed an inexpensive “CO2 Back UP System”. The system is available only at Middlesex Gases & Technologies and can ship in 1 day.

Please contact us today for details and sleep better knowing your CO2 supply is constant and your cells are protected.