Minimizing solvent usage.
Facilitating solvent reclamation and recycling.
Promoting the use of sustainable solvents.
Facilitating the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from before liquid waste discharge.
Reducing industrial activities that result in pollutant release is a critical strategy for sustainable manufacturing.
Solvents are a key material used in manufacturing across various industries such as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, food, energy, and electronics. For example, during the production processes of pharmaceutical drugs, solvents contribute to approximately 85-90% of the total mass of materials used in the manufacturing process [1]. Thus, the production, use, and release of liquid waste (disposal) pose significant energy, health & safety, and environmental impacts. Separation materials that facilitate a more efficient and selective separation process can play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of this impact.
Our separation materials, which facilitate more efficient and selective separation processes, play a key role in mitigating the negative effects of this impact by:
Minimizing solvent usage.
Facilitating solvent reclamation and recycling.
Promoting the use of sustainable solvents.
Facilitating the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from before liquid waste discharge.
Minimizing solvent usage. In large-scale reversed-phase chromatography, organic solvents are employed as modifiers to improve the separation efficiency. Some commonly used organic modifiers include acetonitrile, methanol, and isopropanol.
Currently, at least 5% of these organic modifiers must be used in the mobile phase with common reverse-phase materials such as Silica C18 or Silica C8. These are silica microbeads attached with long chain alkyl groups called C18 or C8. These long-chain alkyl groups undergo a phenomenon called phase collapse when 95-100% of water is used as a mobile phase. This phase collapse reduces the separation capability of these materials. Our materials do not use C18 or C8 and thus can be used with 100% water as an aqueous phase. Thus, an end-user can immediately save % of organic solvent. Additionally, additional amounts of organic solvent usage can be reduced depending on the analyte's separation. Our estimates indicate that our materials can minimize organic solvent usage by 20-50%.
Facilitating solvent reclamation and recycling. Sustainable solvent recovery poses a most difficult challenge to many industrial applications. Thousands of companies worldwide generate highly and marginally polluted solvent streams. The recovery of spent solvents, waste streams, and process streams containing all types of impurities presents a huge challenge.
Our hydrophobic materials and membranes allow recovery components to be removed from a liquid mixture by a technique called pervaporation. This separation technique is especially suitable for dewatering organic solvents or selectively removing organics from aqueous streams—otherwise hard or energy-intensive separations. These innovations allow efficient, cost-effective solutions to reduce, purify, and recycle hazardous liquid waste.
Promote the use of sustainable solvents. Our separation materials are compatible with emerging techniques, such as supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), that employ more eco-friendly solvents. SFC is gaining prominence as an alternative to traditional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). HPLC frequently employs hazardous organic solvents as mobile phase. These solvents include hexane for normal phase and acetonitrile for reversed-phase separations. SFC uses environmentally friendly and inexpensive CO2 as the mobile phase. This CO2 is derived as a by-product of processes used in other industries. Many SFC applications combine CO2 with alcohol as a co-solvent. Together, these approaches have lower toxicity than the common HPLC solvents. CO2 evaporates at the end of the process. Thus, the amount of liquid waste is significantly reduced. This allows for savings in the upfront solvent costs and waste disposal stage.
Facilitate the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from liquid waste discharge. Our custom materials designing capability allows the creation of separation materials that are highly selective of heavy metals and other contaminants. This capability obviates the need to develop complex separation procedures to treat contaminated, impure waste solutions. Our separation materials unlock process efficiencies across the entire manufacturing workflow. Our integrated approach reduces the amount of toxic and waste substances that are generated or released. Thus mitigating their effects on human health and the environment.
Reference
1. Solvent purification and recycling in the process industry, Procedia Engineering, 2012.
This blog is part of our broader impact series, which provides an easy-to-understand overview of the implications of our technology and products on science, sustainability, and human health.
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