For many biopharma facility owners, reducing energy consumption feels like an impossible balancing act.
Laboratories require large volumes of conditioned outside air to maintain safety, compliance, and operational reliability. Unlike office buildings, where occupancy-based controls and recirculation strategies can significantly reduce HVAC loads, laboratories often operate with 100% outside air systems and continuous exhaust requirements. As a result, they can consume three to five times more energy per square foot than traditional commercial buildings.
When organizations begin exploring sustainability initiatives, carbon reduction goals, or operating cost reductions, ventilation quickly emerges as one of the largest opportunities for improvement.
But there is a challenge.
Even when ventilation systems are optimized through risk-based design and demand-controlled ventilation (DCV), laboratories still require substantial amounts of outdoor air. That air must be heated, cooled, humidified, and dehumidified throughout the year. In many biopharma facilities, particularly in cold-weather regions, those conditioning requirements represent a significant portion of annual energy consumption.
This is where energy recovery becomes a critical piece of the solution.
Laboratory ventilation systems are fundamentally different from HVAC systems in most commercial buildings.
To maintain safe working environments, laboratories continuously introduce outdoor air and exhaust potentially contaminated air. Every cubic foot of air exhausted from the building must be replaced with outdoor air that must then be conditioned to meet indoor environmental requirements.
The result is a constant cycle of heating and cooling large volumes of air.
For facilities operating around the clock, this process can create substantial annual utility costs while also increasing carbon emissions associated with heating and cooling energy use.
Many owners focus first on reducing airflow through strategies such as demand-controlled ventilation. While that is an important step, it addresses only part of the challenge.
The remaining outdoor air still requires conditioning.
Energy recovery systems capture thermal energy from exhaust air before it leaves the building and transfer that energy to incoming outdoor air.
Rather than discarding conditioned exhaust air entirely, the system extracts useful heat that would otherwise be wasted.
During winter conditions, heat from the exhaust stream can preheat incoming outdoor air before it reaches the air handling unit. During cooling seasons, energy recovery can help reduce cooling loads as well.
The result is a reduction in the heating and cooling demand placed on central utility systems such as boilers and chillers.
For owners, this translates into:
Importantly, energy recovery accomplishes these benefits without reducing required ventilation rates or compromising laboratory safety.
Several energy recovery technologies are commonly used in laboratory environments.
Run-around coil systems are frequently preferred in laboratory applications because they maintain complete physical separation between supply and exhaust air streams.
A heat-transfer fluid circulates between coils located in the exhaust and supply air streams, transferring energy without introducing any cross-contamination risk.
Because of this separation, run-around systems are often well suited for laboratory and biopharmaceutical facilities where maintaining containment and safety is essential.
Heat pipe systems transfer energy through sealed heat-transfer devices and can provide effective sensible heat recovery in appropriate applications. It should be noted that heat pipes for use in heat recovery systems can be optimized for cooling season OR heating season but not for both.
Plate heat exchangers can also be used in centralized ventilation systems when system configuration and risk considerations allow.
The appropriate technology ultimately depends on the facility's operational requirements, exhaust characteristics, risk profile, and overall design goals.
One of the most common misconceptions I encounter is that demand-controlled ventilation and energy recovery are competing strategies.
In reality, they are complementary.
Demand-controlled ventilation reduces the amount of air that must be conditioned by allowing airflow to decrease during low-risk or unoccupied periods while maintaining the ability to return to full design airflow when needed.
Energy recovery reduces the amount of heating and cooling energy required to condition the outdoor air that remains necessary.
Together, they address both sides of the equation:
The result is a compounded energy benefit that neither strategy can achieve alone.
Many biopharma organizations have established ambitious sustainability and ESG objectives. However, laboratory facilities often represent some of the most energy-intensive buildings in their portfolios.
Energy recovery offers a practical path toward reducing carbon emissions while maintaining operational requirements.
By lowering the thermal energy required to condition outdoor air, facilities can reduce fuel consumption, decrease associated emissions, and improve overall energy performance without compromising safety, compliance, or reliability.
For organizations facing increasing pressure to meet carbon reduction targets, energy recovery has become an increasingly important part of laboratory design and modernization strategies.
While energy savings often drive initial interest, the benefits of energy recovery extend beyond lower utility bills.
Reduced heating and cooling loads can help improve overall system efficiency and resilience. In many cases, advanced ventilation strategies can also support future facility flexibility and long-term operational goals.
For owners evaluating laboratory renovations, expansions, or new construction projects, energy recovery should be viewed not simply as an energy-efficiency feature, but as a long-term infrastructure strategy.
Modern laboratory ventilation design is no longer limited to choosing between safety and efficiency.
Today's technologies allow facilities to maintain high safety performance while significantly reducing the energy required to operate complex laboratory environments.
When paired with risk-based ventilation and demand-controlled ventilation strategies, energy recovery represents one of the most effective tools available for reducing energy consumption, supporting decarbonization initiatives, and improving long-term facility performance.
Energy recovery is only one component of a comprehensive laboratory ventilation strategy.
Download our white paper, Optimizing Laboratory Ventilation in Biopharma Facilities, to learn how risk-based ventilation, demand-controlled ventilation, and energy recovery can work together to reduce energy use while maintaining safety and compliance.
Wayne Catucci is a Lead Mechanical Engineer and Project Manager at Hallam-ICS with more than 13 years of experience in HVAC and mechanical engineering. He specializes in the planning, design, and delivery of laboratory, biopharmaceutical, and other highly regulated facilities, helping owners balance safety, reliability, energy efficiency, and lifecycle cost.
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About Hallam-ICS
Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, North Carolina, and Texas, and our projects take us world-wide.