This website is not just for us!
The green laboratory network at Uppsala University is intended as an organic, grass-roots way for seemingly different research units to share ideas and their progress. If you would like to contribute, please send us an email at sustainability-kemi@uu.se.
Here’s an example
Reducing our lab’s water usage
The Synthetic Molecular Chemistry (SMC) program at Ångström laboratory has implemented various measures to reduce our water usage. See, here’s the problem – chemistry, especially synthetic chemistry – requires a lot of heating and cooling. Traditionally, synthetic chemists use water-cooled glassware which helps condense hot solvent vapors. These look like this:
This is a tremendous amount of water! To make matters worse, this water often needs to be cooled first – an energy (and thus CO2) intensive process.
Now, sometimes, you have to use water cooling. In these cases – such as for SMC’s rotary evaporators – we have purchased recirculating water chillers. This saves both water and energy.
…but we can also take a page from our ancestor chemists. They did not have the luxury of readily available cold water (or really, lots of things, like Sigma Aldrich, sorry, it’s Merck now I guess?). So what did they do? Well, air-cooling!
And you know what? Air cooling still works! SMC purchased several condensers especially suitable for air cooling, and have posted signs around lab instructing users on how to use them.
I am surprised we did not have these deflemmators before in Uppsala. They are definitely easier in use than Liebig condensers, if b.p. > 70 C. In the developing countries chemists are still using air-cooled glassware, but with a different motivation. Labs do not have money to pay for water 🙂