I can recycle my Acetonitrile? WOW!
Posted on Tue, Aug 25, 2009 @ 02:08 PM
By Michael Benson, Sr. Higher Education Account Manager
In the last 8 months our country has seen a lot of economic downturns. One good example was the effect a shortage of Acetonitrile had across much of the research landscape within college and university laboratories. The cost for one case (4 x 4 liter bottles) of Acetonitrile reached an astonishing average of about $1200.00.
During the shortage, many people have asked me if I knew of anyone who was recycling Acetonitrile and if it was possible. I had been working with a company in Ohio (CBG Biotech) to develop a number of solutions (i.e. recycling of lab/research grade Acetone, Ethyl Acetate, and Hexane) over the last 2 years. They immediately took interest in the need and developed two prototypes to test at two local universities. Everyone bit their fingernails with the first trial. After a few minor adjustments, the new recycling unit, with a footprint the size of an HPLC machine, worked as planned.
Some key statistics and results from these test schools:
* Acetonitrile can be recycled from both anhydrous and aqueous wastes
* The recovery is virtually 100%
* The purity is greater than 99.99% with an assay limit of less than 0.01%
* Anhydrous wastes yielded anhydrous Acetonitrile
* Aqueous wastes yielded a concentrated Acetonitrile mixture of approximately 80% Acetonitrile and 20% water with recoveries and purities as noted above.
* Aqueous mixtures could easily be made anhydrous when using a dehydrating agent such as calcium chloride.
We have found that there has been an average return on investment (ROI) of about 1.5 years with the purchase of an Acetonitrile recycling unit. These types of recycling units are very self sufficient and very easy to use. To coin a term, “just set it and forget it”. On average, many of the labs that are purchasing the 2.5 liter model from CBG Biotech and are getting 4-5 gallons of Acetonitrile returned as product to their lab each day.
If you are not taking advantage of the recycling technologies available for solvents these days, you are missing the boat. The technology is light years ahead of those old unsafe glass solvent stills. These units are UL approved and work great!