MEDICAL GAS SYSTEMS
AI-driven system improves reliability and efficiency
Within the Estates Department at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a major trauma centre in north-east England, the COVID pandemic placed significant pressure on engineering services, highlighting the need to maintain and improve the resilience and reliability of all key M&E plant. Now, in 2022, the new medical gas plant, developed by SHJ Medical Gas Specialists, has ‘addressed areas of energy inefficiency, vastly increased the system’s productivity, resilience, and reliability’, and aided carbon emission reduction. Ben Slawinski, Plant Development manager, and Katrina Robson, Marketing manager, report.
During a risk-based backlog maintenance assessment on the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s medical and industrial air plant, Ian Clayton, RVI’s senior specialist engineering officer, and his team identified both a need to replace the existing plant, and the key risks and areas of improvement they should look for when installing the replacement equipment – namely reliability, critical spares availability, air quality, and plant downtime. In line with Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s own
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target of achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030, the team was also looking for plant that would address issues of energy inefficiency and carbon emission reduction. After looking at potential suppliers,
RVI partnered with SHJ due to the two organisations’ shared vision on post- COVID resilience and innovation. RVI’s original system for air delivery to the site (medical, surgical, and industrial) was broken up into completely separate plants, separate dryers, and distribution
Data we have gathered over the past few months has shown that the frequency of machine cut-in and cut-out has now been reduced significantly
networks, that were linked. Four compressors with a total motor drive output of 165 kW (comprising a 55 kW and Triplex 37 kW medical air system) were potentially running at any one time, which was both costly and energy- inefficient. SHJ’s solution was to create a system that can operate both as an individual system, supplying the industrial and medical side as two individual plants, but also in a ‘global mode’ that links the two plants together, allowing for optimisation of energy efficiency at any individual point.
Hospital capacity met To provide a more efficient HTM- compliant replacement system, three 55 kW Kaeser compressors were installed on the medical side of the plant, each able to meet the hospital’s demand based on the HTM calculations. Four smaller Kaeser compressors were then installed at 11 kW and 22 kW respectively that could cope with the demand on the industrial side. A VSD (variable speed drive) compressor is then used to optimise energy efficiency. When in separate mode, the
compressors for the industrial and medical plant run independently, feeding both sides, which is not the optimal option, in terms of energy usage. However, by utilising Empower (SHJ’s intelligent plant control system), the customisable and flexible system can combine the eight compressors together to consistently match the site’s demands, with the optimal supply from the compressors.
The Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a major trauma centre in the north-east of England.
58 Health Estate Journal November 2022
Differing consumption patterns For example, during the day, more air is used at the RVI due to use by the hospital’s Dental School, and consumption of industrial air, which may require up to 40 kW in terms of power usage. However, during the evening and overnight, when both the Dental School and the Outpatients’ Department are closed, the
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