Coltec Engineering

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Melaleuca Research and Quarantine Facility
Government Facilities

Purpose of this building is the research and quarantine of insects for the use of biological control of invasive plants. The facility was certified by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service since it required quarantine and maximum quarantine USDA BL3 level agriculture rooms. These rooms required different levels of containment to prevent insect contamination.

Client/Owner

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

General Contractor

Hewett-Kier

Architect

Graves + Carlos Architects, Engineers

Engineer

Graves + Carlos Architects, Engineers

HVAC System

The HVAC supply and return air systems were implemented with special screening and filtering to prevent the insect contamination from quarantine to non-quarantine and from quarantine to maximum level quarantine rooms. The HVAC system was designed to provide several levels of negative pressure in the maximum quarantine and quarantine rooms for quarantine containment.

HVAC Implementation

Cooling System: Consists of (2) 87 Ton Trane Air Cooled Chillers with (2) TACO chilled water pumps.

Quarantine Areas: (2) multi-zone Air Handlers serving the maximum quarantine and quarantine areas. These special areas were designed with 99.99% efficiency HEPA filters for supply and return air in maximum quarantine, and 85% efficiency HEPA filters for the quarantine area.

Lab Zone: A VAV Air Handler with Heat Exchanger and radial induced dilution fume exhaust fan was installed for the lab zone.

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