SIU Campus
Southern Illinois University recently installed boilers in its core buildings previously served by a central plant and turned to Spirotherm to help clear the debris left from the old system.

Located in Southwest Illinois within sight of the St. Louis arch, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville sits on 2,660 acres of rolling hills, trees and lakes. Since opening its doors in 1964, the university has enjoyed a steady rise in enrollment and is currently home to over 13,500 students, approximately 22% of which live on-campus in either residence halls or apartment-style housing.

When the campus was built, the buildings were heated by a high temperature hot water system out of the central power plant. The plant distributed 400

One of the units being considered was the Spirovent® combination air & dirt separator manufactured by Spirotherm. Using a desktop product demo unit, Robert Carter of Debco Equipment Co., Spirotherm's St. Louis sales office, demonstrated the efficiency of the Spirovent to Washburn and his colleagues. The Spirovent employs the patented Spirotube® coalescing/barrier medium to scrub air and dirt from hot and chilled water systems with unprecedented efficiency, allowing it to break free of the flow path. The air is released through a patented air release mechanism, while the dirt falls to the bottom and collects in the dirt chamber, where it can be blown down through a manual or automatic blow down valve.

Carter worked with the mechanical contractor, Tom Gent of Amsco Mechanical (Granite City, IL), and the consulting engineer, Andy Rein of BRiC Partnership (Belleville, IL), to size Spirovent units for 11 buildings on campus and develop a quotation. They recommended replacing the old centrifugal-type air separators that were installed in each of the buildings with Spirovent combination air/dirt units that would eliminate both the dirt and the air that the existing separators weren't addressing. Gent chose the Spirovent based on the performance demonstrated by the demo unit and the straight in-line design. Amsco Mechanical did the installations.

Retrofitting an air separator or other large piping fixture can sometimes be a challenge, but Spirovent's design simplifies the job. "The inlet and outlet of the Spirotherm unit are on the same level, making installation easier on a tight retrofit project,"