He recovery system
Contracting Office Address
Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640
NIST has a requirement for a He recovery system to recover, compress, and liquify He gas generated from experimental laboratories in building 218 of the Advanced Measurement Laboratory of NIST. Liquid helium is critical to NIST's mission involving traceability of measurements, the ability to prevent the loss of valuable data in ongoing experiments, and to prevent costly repair of highly sensitive equipment due to unexpected warmups. NIST provides traceability of all electric power, voltage, and resistance standards in the United States and these currently all depend on a stable supply of liquid He. Therefore, it is critical that NIST acquires a He recovery system, given the current shortages of He, uncertain supply chains, and environmental unsoundness of releasing He into the atmosphere as He is a non-renewable resource.
The system will be located in building 218 of the AML. NIST will build the required He plumbing lines from the various labs that use liquid He to a central location in building 218, where the recovery system is to be located. The recovery system will be divided into two locations. The He gas storage and compression will be located in the mechanical space of building 218, and the purifiers and liquefiers will be located in the lab space of building 218. NIST will provide the appropriate plumbing to these two locations for the vendor to hook the recovery system too.
Minimum Requirements
All items must be new. Prototypes, demonstration models, used or refurbished instruments will not be considered for award.
Line Item 0001: One (1) He Recovery and High Pressure Liquefication System which shall meet or exceed the specifications identified below.
A. He liquefiers shall be provided with the following minimum specifications
1. The liquefier shall a capacity of at least 120 liters per day
2. The liquefier shall be fully automated with a touch screen panel
3. The liquefier shall have no depressurizing wait time to transfer He from its storage vessels
4. The compressors for the liquefiers shall be water cooled and allow for remote location from the liquefier at a distance of at least 40 feet
B. Automated He Purifiers shall be provided with the following minimum specifications
1. The purifiers shall purify He to 99.9995%
2. The purifiers shall have a capacity purify to the required He for the liquefiers in item A.
3. The purifiers shall have a regeneration operation that shall be accomplished automatically and shall take no more than 8 hours to regenerate. Greater consideration will be given for shorter regeneration times, and integrated hydrogen removal capability.
C. The Recovery System shall contain He gas dryers to remove moisture from the recovered helium gas
D. The Recovery system shall contain a He recovery bag with the following minimum specifications
1. The recovery bag shall have a volume of at least 17 cubic meters consisting of two separate bags of 8.5 cubic meter volume or larger
2. The recovery bags shall have a recovery bag controller
3. The recovery bags shall have pressure relief valves
E. The Recovery system shall contain high pressure He compression and storage with the following minimum specifications
1. High pressure gas cylinders shall be provided with a manifold attached to each cylinder. The number of cylinders provided shall be in keeping with the size of the liquefiers in A and the recycle time of the purifiers to prevent He gas loss. The cylinders shall be DOT/TC Certified 300CF with CGA-580 outlet valves. The cylinders shall be bundled together into cradles to contain them
2. A high-pressure compressor shall be provided to compress the He gas into the cylinders up to 3200 psi
F. The Recovery system shall contain eight (8) Back Pressure Devices to minimize pressure fluctuations in the experimental systems. Greater consideration will be given to back pressure devices with automatic electric valve control and the smallest bath pressure variations in the experimental cryostats.
G. The Recovery system shall have a control system for the recovery system. Greater consideration will be given for a) controls systems that are software based running on PC computers, b) control systems that feature fail safe protections, c) control systems that have a GUI interface showing the status of various components of the recovery system, such as liquification status, transfer status, cleaning status, and data logging information.
Installation
The system shall be installed by the Contractor and meet contract specifications no later than 8 weeks after delivery. Installation, at a minimum, shall include uncrating/unpackaging of all equipment, set-up and hook-up of the system, demonstration of all specifications, including liquefication rates and removal of trash. Onsite installation and demonstration shall be done at NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Training
The contractor shall conduct no less than eight (8) hours of training for up to three (4) users at NIST. The training shall provide a thorough demonstration of all system functions, maintenance, data administration, and basic troubleshooting. The training may be completed at NIST immediately after installation/set-up, but shall be completed no later than 30 days after installation.
NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 334516, as those domestic sources having 1,000 employees or less. Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.
Companies are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to forest.crumpler@nist.gov no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should include achievable specifications and any other information relevant to your product or capabilities.
Forest Crumpler, Phone 3019756753, Email forest.crumpler@nist.gov
