Implementation of Green Chemistry and Sustainable Lab Practices in the University of Colorado-Boulder Chemistry Department

Lily Robertson, University of Colorado-Boulder

Academic chemistry laboratories contribute significantly to the environmental footprint of a university due to their high usages of energy, water, and hazardous chemicals. At the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU), many steps have been taken to improve sustainability through factors such as equipment use and settings, but a direct evaluation of the chemistry performed itself was lacking. Several projects are now in effect—the purchase of a fractional distillation unit for solvent recycling; the implementation of an acetone recycling program within the organic-focused research and teaching labs; ethanol reuse from cold traps for sterilizing biosafety cabinets; and modification of traditional organic teaching labs procedures to greener versions.

Acetone is a commonly used solvent in organic chemistry labs for rinsing glassware. Often, the rinse acetone contains water as a main impurity and is ideal for solvent recycling. The CU Chemistry Stockroom sold approximately 6200 L of acetone in 2012 ($19,000 of cost), a majority of which remained in Chemistry. The high volume also makes it ideal for recycling.

The CU chemistry department purchased a 2.5 gallon fractional distillation unit with funding from various campus resources. In June 2013, a recycling program was started with rinse acetone collection from organic teaching labs and participating research labs. The recycler is fully automated, making it facile to recycle 2.5 gallons of acetone waste in a few hours with high recovery and purity. The freshly distilled acetone is available for the organic research and teaching labs to reuse. From June 2013 to March 2014, there has been over $1500 in savings.

About 120 gallons/yr of clean ethanol was being disposed as hazardous waste simply because water from the air slowly humidified the ethanol, making it unusable for cold traps. CU's EH&S department realized the ethanol could be reused by the Biochemistry cell culture facility, which uses diluted ethanol for sterilizing wipe-downs of biosafety cabinets. This project is now saving that facility significant funds.

Several traditional syntheses used in the organic teachings labs have been modified to use greener solvents and reactants. For example, a greener bromination procedure: previously, students added bromine in dichloromethane to trans-cinnamic acid. Now bromine is generated in situ by reacting hydrogen peroxide and hydrobromic acid in ethanol. The new method also eliminates high volumes of aqueous sodium thiosulfate waste. This adaptation affects 800-900 students per year.

These projects and other green organic chemistry lab procedures adapted by CU will be discussed as well as the impact they are having to grow awareness of green chemistry at CU.

Learning Objectives

  • Learn about green chemistry projects implemented at CU.
  • Learn about the hazardous waste diversion and dollar savings resulting from those projects.
  • Learn about impact those projects are having on raising awareness about green chemistry at CU.

Biography:

Lily received her B.S. from the University of Oregon in 2010 with a Chemistry and Mathematics double major. She received departmental honors in Chemistry and was also a graduate of the Robert D. Clark Honor's College. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado-Boulder. While her research focuses on organic materials chemistry, she works as a Green Labs Team Lead endeavoring to improve the sustainability of her department.

 

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