Ecogate On-Demand Dust Collection for Laboratories & Pharmaceutical Production

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Dust Collection in Labs and Pharmaceutical Production

Laboratories and pharmaceutical production facilities have some of the strictest air quality requirements in industry. These environments demand quiet operation, precise airflow control, and strict contamination prevention — all while maintaining safe duct transport velocities in compliance with NFPA guidelines.

Ecogate’s On-Demand Control System meets these needs head-on. By supplying ventilation only where and when it’s required, our system keeps inactive drops closed, reducing noise, conserving conditioned air, and cutting operating costs.

With installations at Svante’s R&D lab, multiple GlaxoSmithKline sites, Upsher-Smith, and Fortune Pharmacal in Hong Kong, Ecogate technology is already proven in sensitive environments. Typical return on investment is achieved in just a few months.

Check out an Ecogate system installed at an R&D Lab

Why Conventional Systems Fall Short

Typical lab movable arm for localized dust collection

In most labs and pharma facilities, conventional dust collection operates in one of two inefficient ways:

1. All drops open all the time — creating high noise levels and placing heavy demands on make-up air systems.

2. Some drops closed manually — which often reduces airflow below the minimum transport velocity, allowing dust to settle and increasing the risk of contamination, fire, or explosion.

Neither approach offers the flexibility or safety that research and production environments require.

Contaminated Air & Make-Up Air Challenges

In laboratory and pharmaceutical settings, air removed by dust collection is typically contaminated and cannot be recirculated into the workspace. Every cubic foot per minute (CFM) exhausted must be replaced with costly make-up air.

By running only the active collection points, Ecogate significantly reduces make-up air volume. This not only saves money but often delivers full payback for the system in just a few months.

Key Components of Ecogate’s Control System for Labs

greenBOX Nxt control unit

Butterfly Smart Gate with Precision Airflow motor

Wall switches for arm control

Check out an Ecogate system with manual switches installed

Our system is designed to start and stop collection points only when needed — either via simple wall switches or automatically through integration with process controls and machine signals.

Key capabilities for lab/pharma use:

• Selective operation: Any number of drops can be active, up to system/fan capacity. Inactive drops remain closed, preserving room conditions and reducing noise.

• Specialized gates: Butterfly Smart Gates with high-quality silicone seals are recommended for lab use. Available in stainless steel or zinc-plated finishes.

• Adjustable bleed gates: Maintain minimum safe duct velocities by drawing air from plenums above ceilings or at technology levels — not from occupied spaces.

Why Dedicated Bleed Gates Matter

In industrial dust collection, one way to maintain duct velocity is to open extra collection points. In laboratories, this method is unsuitable because:

• Disturbance to lab work: Additional open points can disrupt experiments and violate strict protocols.

• Increased make-up air demand: Pulling extra air from the lab drives up energy costs and can exceed the capacity of the make-up air system.

• Unacceptable noise levels: More open points increase background noise, which can interfere with sensitive work.

Ecogate’s dedicated bleed gates eliminate these issues. They automatically adjust based on the number of active drops, pulling air from plenums outside the occupied zone. This maintains safe transport velocities without exhausting conditioned lab air or affecting room pressure control.

Laboratory dust collection system with ten movable arms, bleed gates pulling from a plenum

This system uses adjustable bleed gates to maintain minimal airflow. By sourcing air from the plenum rather than the conditioned laboratory space, it reduces make-up air requirements and operational costs.

Bleed gates fully open with one active arm

When only one dust collection arm is operating, the final two adjustable bleed gates are almost fully open, ensuring the minimum transport air velocity in the duct system is maintained.

Bleed gates partially closed with two active arms

With two arms active, the bleed gates partially close. This balances airflow across the network while keeping duct velocities above the safe threshold.

Bleed gates nearly shut with three active arms

When three arms are operating, the bleed gates are nearly closed because the combined airflow from the active arms is already sufficient to maintain the required transport velocity.

This step-by-step operation ensures the system stays safe and efficient without compromising laboratory conditions or adding unnecessary noise.

Make-Up Air & Energy Savings

Laboratories are often held slightly negative to surrounding corridors, with make-up air units maintaining that pressure differential.

In a conventional system:

• The make-up air system must be sized for peak load (thousands of CFM), increasing capital cost, ducting complexity, and ongoing energy use.

• Engineers often under-specify make-up air systems due to lack of accurate simultaneous-use data, leading to performance issues.

With Ecogate:

• Air from occupied spaces is only drawn when a drop is active.

• Peak make-up air demand is significantly reduced.

• Smaller equipment, lower HVAC energy use, and reduced thermal loads are achieved without sacrificing safety or performance.

Operational Benefits

Ecogate on-demand control delivers measurable improvements in lab and pharmaceutical environments:

• Lower noise: Only active collection points operate, improving work conditions and protecting experiments.

• Lower contamination risk: Closed drops prevent unintended airflow through workstations.

• Safety: Dedicated bleed gates maintain minimum transport velocities, reducing dust accumulation and fire/explosion risk.

• Flexible capacity: Operates efficiently from one to full system load — ideal for variable R&D workloads.

• Proven in sensitive environments: Trusted by leading research labs and pharmaceutical facilities worldwide.

Reliability & Continuity — Lead/Backup Fans

For processes where loss of dust collection could invalidate an experiment or production batch, Ecogate offers lead/backup fan configurations:

• If the lead fan fails, the backup fan starts automatically and immediately.

• Fans swap roles daily to keep both units tested and operational.

This redundancy ensures high availability for mission-critical operations.

Conventional vs. Ecogate On-Demand

Feature	Conventional System	Ecogate On-Demand System
Make-Up Air	Full capacity required for all drops	Only required for active drops
Air Removed	All exhausted air replaced with make-up air	Only active drops ventilate, reducing make-up air demand
Energy Use	Full load for dust collector fan and make-up air system	Only runs when drops are active
Noise	High noise from all open drops	Significantly reduced noise levels
Capital Costs	Larger, more expensive dust collector and make-up air equipment	Smaller systems sized for average use, with reserve capacity

Conclusion

Ecogate’s on-demand dust collection is uniquely suited to laboratory and pharmaceutical applications. By reducing noise, lowering HVAC and capital costs, preserving experimental conditions, and maintaining NFPA-compliant transport velocities, Ecogate provides a safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective solution than conventional systems.

With proven installations across the industry and ROI in just a few months, Ecogate offers a practical path to higher performance and lower operating costs.

Contact us to review your lab layout and receive a tailored evaluation.

Ales Litosmisky