Laboratory Energy Costs - Time to Look at Methodologies?

Energy costs are rising and with no end in sight. This is having an impact both at home and on business costs. As laboratories look to not only reduce their environmental impact but also rising energy bills we need to consider the impact of individual methods and instrumentation.

One such method is ashing/loss on ignition/residue on ignition, typically performed in a traditional muffle furnace. Due to the slow heating profiles, furnaces are often left powered up at temperature for the full working day, week or continuously.

In comparison, the Milestone PYRO microwave ashing system from Analytix provides heating to 650°C in less than 8 minutes and can ash up to 24 samples at once. Typically the microwave ashing process also vastly reduces the total ashing time down to 45-60 minutes. A full microwave ashing run on average uses only 0.71kWh and equates to around 35p total energy consumption for batches of up to 24 samples.

Can your ashing furnace provide such an energy efficient solution?

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