HEPA vs ULPA: What's the Difference?

 HEPA vs ULPA: What's the Difference?

by Liam Critchley

Filters are a critical component of any biosafety cabinet (BSC). Understanding how filters work, what their levels of maintenance are (and why it’s important to keep them clean), and how often your filters need to be replaced, are factors that need to be considered when purchasing a BSC because they feed into the overall cost and ROI—and ultimately play a role in deciding which type of BSC is right for you.

Financials aside, there are also different filters available for your scientific needs and some filter types are better suited for some applications over others. Here, we look at the two highest efficiency filters that can be used with a BSC, the high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter and ultra-low penetration (ULPA) filter, how they differ from each other, and when you should use these filters in your research.

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