Project Clearinghouse

Thimann Culture Incubators

Sustainability Problem and Proposed Solution: 

Over the past few years, equipment replacements implemented in the Biology Teaching Laboratories at UC Santa Cruz have dramatically reduced the carbon footprint of our operations, while saving the university thousands of dollars. Thanks to the support of the UCSC Sustainability Office and the Carbon Fund, we are in a position to continue this trend with the replacement of several microbiological culture incubators serving several of our microbial and molecular laboratory courses.

Jump to: Contact | Project Description | Funding Sources | Metrics for Success | Results
Project Categories: 
Energy & Climate
Project Status: 
In Progress
Project End Date: 
11/01/2022
(estimated)
Campus Organization: 
Carbon Fund
Sustainability Office
Affiliated Department, Unit or College: 
MCD Biology, METX, EEB Departments
Project Location: 
On campus

Thimann Laboratories


Stakeholder Contacts: 
Contact NameEmail AddressContact Number
Julio Harvey
jharvey@ucsc.edu
4153171983
Todd Hillaker
hillaker@ucsc.edu
Funding Sources: 
MCD Biology
PBSci Division

Project Description: 

Microbiological culture incubators are essential for supporting both lower and upper division biology laboratory courses held in UCSC’s Thimann Laboratories building on Science Hill. Basic and advanced microbiological and molecular methods require microbial growth in various solid and liquid culture media, at a range of temperatures. This need is nearly constant throughout many of our courses; BTL biology course support operations would grind to a standstill in the absence of this critical equipment.

Currently, the BTL is home to 12 microbiology incubators, ranging in vintage from the 1960s through the 1990s. Many of these units were built some time ago and contain last generation fans, water jackets and electrical heating elements. Consequently, these units are less energetically efficient than modern equivalents. The advent of Peltier technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling and its application to heating/cooling needs for stable temperature devices is well known, and has led to dramatic advances in energy use reduction for microbiological and molecular laboratory applications. Examples of laboratory devices that save up to 93% more energy than traditional equivalents, through the use of Peltier technology, include thermocyclers https://ii-vi.com/how_do_thermoelectric_coolers_tec_work/ , fruit-fly incubators https://projectclearinghouse.ucsc.edu/?q=thimann-incubators, and microbiological culture incubators ​​https://www.sheldonmanufacturing.com/shel-lab-products/productid/SRI6P.

Completion of this project would serve the Carbon Fund’s Mission Statement by helping to mitigate climate change through reduction of UCSC’s greenhouse gas emissions and concomitant reduction of our carbon footprint. We calculate that this project would save 10.63 tons of atmospheric CO2 emissions over the first 25 years (see GHG & Cost Savings Calculator for this project). Although this project is projected to have a simple payback period of nearly 40 years, it is worth noting that over half of our current incubators have been in operation for at least 45 years, and some probably longer. Our overarching project goals are in direct alignment with the UC President's pledge to become Carbon Neutral by 2025.

Peltier element based cooling https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=11389 in the replacement incubators we are targeting has myriad advantages https://thermal.ferrotec.com/technology/te-modules-vs-traditional-refrig... over traditional compressor based technology. We propose to replace eight of our aging microbiological culture incubators with modern equivalents. Due to increased organizational efficiency implemented by our team, we are currently in a position to replace eight older devices with a total of seven modern equivalents, further reducing our energy use and carbon footprint by reducing the total number of instruments in operation.

Metrics for Success: 

Resource savings for this project will ultimately be measured using the Watts Up meter to determine actual energy use by the new Peltier element incubators we intend to purchase. We hope that, as with last year’s project involving Peltier equipped incubators for fruit flies, savings will be in excess of those calculated during our initial application process.

Next Steps: 
1) Transfer of grant funds to appropriate FOAPAL 2) Purchase ShelLabs replacement units 3) Receive and install new units—all funds should be spent by this date 4) Calculate energy savings and complete project reporting—the project completion target date is November 1st
Result Categories: 
Technology
Results: 

Our new microbiological culture incubators would serve the BTL while lowering our energy consumption appreciably. Tens of thousands of UCSC students directly use or pass by our equipment during its lifetime, and instrumentation lifetimes can span many decades. Currently, our existing, old, inefficient incubators represent an unfortunate sustainability eyesore for students, faculty and staff, in addition to being unnecessary electricity sinks. Therefore, any replacement of these units will be highly beneficial for our laboratories, from both political and functional perspectives. New microbiological culture incubators would provide better educational service to our students, benefit the greater campus community through reduced energy use, and demonstrate our shared commitment to environmental sustainability.

Additionally, our project promotes UCSC’s Principles of Community in the following ways:

A culturally and socially diverse group of individuals will benefit mutually if our project is funded—the responsibility of evolving to greener and cleaner operations falls on the shoulders of all group members equally. Microbiological culture incubators are a requirement for successful laboratory operations and our community universally supports steps toward greater energy efficiency.

Our project supports social justice for local and global communities by decreasing CO2 released into our collective atmosphere, benefiting everyone on Earth.

Our project promotes fair and equal access to electricity resources by using less than we do currently. As UCSC collectively moves toward using electricity more efficiently, the local community benefits because those resources become available for common use.

Our project will serve a culturally and socioeconomically diverse group of UCSC students, faculty and staff (Diverse). Through steps to reduce carbon emissions, we are deliberately strengthening our commitment to preservation of our natural environment (Purposeful). Through reducing unnecessary resource use our project will help to better care for local communities (Caring), and in doing so, we demonstrate discipline in not settling for the status quo, but rather, striving to advance sustainability objectives (Disciplined).

Students, staff and instructors would be the direct end-users for this project. All of these individuals would benefit equally from using better equipment to support their teaching and learning activities, equipment designed to preserve our environment through lowering energy use. The availability of technologically advanced, low-environmental impact equipment for members of the MCD and METX laboratory course communities, would substantially contribute to our ongoing goal of improved environmental sustainability standards in the BTL.