Service Bulletin - Sulfur Introduction in Growth Chambers
Aug 9, 2024
As part of our ongoing commitment to customer satisfaction, we are informing you of a service bulletin for introducing sulfur burning into the air flow of plant growth chambers and rooms. If one or more of your Conviron reach-in or walk-in chambers is introducing sulfur, please consider the following notice and recommendations.
What's the issue?
Sulfur, when mixed with air, creates sulfur dioxide which may damage certain parts of a plant growth chamber. Sulfur dioxide can corrode metal and alloys causing damage to these components. Piping, cooling/heating coils and wiring made of copper and or aluminum within the chamber can all be affected by higher concentrations of sulfur dioxide and may cause unwanted control issues, chamber shutdowns, and leaks.
What should you do?
Options are available to include additional coatings that will help protect air flow coils and piping, that can be purchased at the time of the chamber design and will reduce the risk of damage due to corrosive gases such as sulfur sioxide.
Facility preparation: If your chamber is already performing sulfur burning, we advise you do so under the following room conditions to limit the dispersion of the sulfur to only the plant growth area of the chamber with the following settings:
- Lights off
- Circulating fans off
- Temperature control off
- Humidification off
- Exhaust fan off
- Exhaust and fresh air dampers closed
- 10 min delay period prior to fumigation cycle
- Fumigation power/burn time period activated for maximum of 5 minutes.
- Dampers held close for minimum 8 hours after burn period complete
It is recommended that if sulfur burning is required to be used in the chamber, that NO more than 224g/m² or 0.75oz/ft² of sulfur every 14 days be introduced into the growth space. Excessive use of sulfur dioxide in short duration or high concentration of sulfur dioxide will cause both room and equipment damage. Failure to follow the above recommendations could cause chamber malfunctions and will void warranty on the product.
Upon any warranty claim Conviron may request inspection of the product(s) at the purchaser’s cost. Conviron reserves the right to deny warranty due to the condition of the product(s). It is solely the decision of Conviron whether to accept or deny warranty based on product that has incorporated the use of sulfur.
Please contact Conviron Sales or Service should you have any additional questions about introducing sulfur into the air flow of a plant growth chamber or growth room.