Sustainability is not only a word for us at MS Vision. We hate throwing away well working instruments and we genuinely believe that many instruments can be upgraded to achieve new performance heights.
When you purchase a mass spectrometer, this is usually a longer term investment of several hundred thousand Euros or Dollars. Yet after a couple of years, you might not need this instrument anymore as the research project had ended or you were able to replace it by a newer model.
Sometimes you also need another system to increase capacity, but the existing model does the job well. Thus you won’t need the newest gadget but just anything fit for purpose.
These are typical cases whereMS Vision can help. We buy and sell refurbished pre-owned mass spectrometers. This can save you money and help you to achieve a better return on investment in a commercial setup.
Scrapping a mass spectrometer is a huge waste of resources. A typical mass spec weighs around 100-500 kg and contains large amounts of aluminium alloys and electronics components with gold, nickel, cobalt, rare earths and other valuable resources. The stainless steel parts are often alloys containing chrome, vanadium and molybdenum. Some of these elements contribute significantly to environmental contaminations and should be used as efficiently as possible.
But this is not all we do! We also upgrade existing instruments, either yours on site or one from our stock, to boost their performance and let the achieve things you would not have assumed before.
Do you think a 20 year old LCT premier can achieve what a QExactive UHMR can? Well, it can, and to some extend at even higher performance!
A Micromass LCT premier was upgraded to a High Mass ESI-TOF system with several modifications in the source and transfer region.
This enables the instrument to easily detect non-covalent complexes into the several 100kDa mass range.
Currently, MS Vision offers upgrades for Waters QTOF and Synapt instruments as well as for ThermoFisher QExactive plus systems.
High mass upgrades are available for all types of instruments, the combination of optical spectroscopy and IM-MS is only available on the Synapt platform.
But we do not stop there. We keep tested parts from pre-owned instruments on stock when the instrument is scrapped to ensure a long lasting supply of parts. E.g. we have a significant stock of Waters embedded PC’s which only work with a specific, out-of-production computer hardware. With these parts we are able to provide support long after the end-of.-service lifetime of many manufacturers and also can significantly save costs as parts for out-of-service instruments tend to increase in price significantly faster then more modern spare parts due to their limited availability.
We also think about ways to reduce energy consumption on mass spec systems. The systems are permanently under high vacuum and that needs consistent pumping. Most of the pumping with LC-MS systems is required in the source area where the transition from ambient pressure to high vacuum takes place.
Choosing the right pumps can significantly reduce your power bill. E.g. Edwards xDS35i scroll pumps have around 40% of the maximum power consumption of an Agilent MS40+ pump. Another way to significantly reduce power costs is to shut the source valves on LC-MS instruments when they are not in use. This not only avoids contamination with material in the ambient air such as ubiquitous plasticizers, but also reduces the workload on the pumps. Our R&D scientists have calculated that for Synapt or QExactive this can save up to 1.1 tons of carbon dioxide a year!
To continuously improve in terms of sustainability, MS Vision also regularly participates e.g. in the “Sustainability in MS Workshop” organized by the British Mass Spectromtery Society, e.g. with a presentation by Steve Daly on upgrading and recycling existing instrument.
In addition, MS Vision participates in certification programs such as Integrity Next to monitor and improve our environmental footprint.
