Those who read our blog regularly, or who have not been afraid to call me and ask me everything they are interested in regarding freeze-drying, may have come across our unconventional determination of pressure, or vacuum. So today we'll take a brief look at the options on offer and why everyone should use Torr.
Bar (formerly atmosphere) or pascal as units is probably familiar to anyone who has ever inflated a tire on a bicycle or car. However, vacuum is essential in lyophilisation. The ordinary European would probably be the first to think of pascals or bar, as these are SI units. I have even once been asked what we have in these American units, and he was referring to the Torr unit.
Below, we'll look at all 3 units and say the same values for each
1. Atmospheric pressure
2. The pressure at which AMARU begins lyophilization
3. the minimum vacuum reachable in the AMARU chamber
Bar
The bar is a simple unit, popular for its illustrative nature. Everyone knows that 1 bar is equivalent to atmospheric pressure. After all, that's why the term "atmosphere" used to be used. In the SI system, it is a secondary unit that will probably be removed from the system altogether at some point, as its inclusion is marked as temporary.
1 bar
1,333 mbar
0,133 mbar
Pascal
Pascal is a derived unit of the SI system. It also can be commonly found on compressors at gas stations, but is probably better known in meteorology due to the derived unit Hectopascal (hPa). Pascals and their multiples are sometimes required for laboratory lyophilisers
101.325 Pa
133,322 Pa
13,332 Pa
Torr
The torr is a unit of hydrostatic pressure, named after the Italian scientist (so much for the alleged "American unit") Evangelista Torricelli. Older generations may know it as the "millimetre of mercury column" with the designation mm Hg. As with bars, we use the unit Torr, and just as we use its thousandth militorr (mTorr).
760 Torr
1000 mTorr
100 mTorr
And now to the reasons why we recommend using Torry for working with the freeze dryer. Many laboratories do so because this unit is simply operated by scientists around the world and is used to express vacuum in various scientific publications.
However, for the processor of freeze-dried foods there is a much simpler reason, which is probably evident from the three values above, and that is readability and memorability. It is simply easier to remember a limit of 100 mTorr than, say, 13,332 Pa or 0,133 mbar.
A little tip at the end - if you're floundering when converting units (not just pressure), try Aevumsoft's Unit Converter.
We have been using it ourselves for years and are extremely happy with it.