Clean Modules goes to the Antarctic

Clean Modules has developed a mobile cleanroom in a container for use in one of the world's harshest environments, the Southern Oceans around Antarctica.

The container cleanroom was specially designed and built for the Chemical Oceanography Department at the Leibniz Institute of Sea Sciences in Kiel, Germany, who are researching the role of trace metals on primary productivity in the ocean. The cleanroom was used for the first time during EiFeX (European Iron Fertilisation Experiment), a mesoscale experiment in which algae growth in the iron-limited Southern Ocean was promoted by adding iron oxide (ferrous sulphate) to a 50 km2 study site. This approach has been suggested as a possible method to remove anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere and thus mitigate the effects of global warming.

The bespoke container accommodates two technicians and consists of an ISO Class 7 cleanroom with an ISO Class 5 Laminar AirFlow (LAF) bench, complete with anchor points to secure the contents, a Change Area and Plant Room with an uninterrupted power supply (UPS).

The room has a built in seawater sampling system and meets low trace element standards to enable sensitive scientific monitoring. To cope with the extreme environment in the Southern Oceans, consideration was given to risk of seawater penetration and corrosion, as well as the rough conditions on board the research vessel Polarstern.

According to Dr Peter Croot, who was involved in the experiment, the cleanroom “proved to be excellent at maintaining conditions despite the environment encountered outside.”

“During the cruise we were able to collect and analyse open ocean samples with apparently little or no contamination, as demonstrated by low background iron concentrations of 10-100 pM (1012 mol L-1),” Croot added.