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Overcoming the Acetonitrile crunch….. Reduce your Acetonitrile Consumption
In October 2008 it was officially announced that there is a worldwide shortage of acetonitrile. Acetonitrile is a by-product from the manufacture of acrylonitrile which is used in a variety of products including, carpets, clothing and car bumpers.
The shortage results from an attenuated output from China as production was shut down for the Olympics as well as damage to a U.S. factory in Texas during Hurricane Ike.
Furthermore, because of the global economic slowdown, the production of acrylonitrile used in acrylic fibers and acrylonitrile-butadiene (ABS) resins has also decreased.
To make matter worse, the consumption of acetonitrile is forecasted to grow at a rate of 5% per year for the next five years with an expected major growth for China and India.
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The use of acetonitrile in the Pharmaceutical Industry has grown in recent year and represents 70% of the total consumption. It is used in a variety of application as an extraction and processing solvent, for example for the isolation of antibiotics, Insulin, vitamins as well as for chemical processes and HPLC analysis.
A few articles have described alternative synthetic routes for the production of acetonitrile but they remain expensive.
So what are the alternatives as the reserves of acetonitrile grow ever smaller? |
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Solution 1: Reduce column dimension and/or particle size
This strategy involves using columns with reduced dimensions (length and internal diameter) and/or packing material with smaller particle diameter (Sub 2µm or Poroshell).
Zorbax solvent saver columns have a lower interstitial volume so will save solvent.
The use of smaller particle size or superficially porous silica leads to a faster HPLC methods which are generally 4 to 10 times faster than for conventional HPLC with considerable solvent savings.
Sub 2µm RRHT (Zorbax RRHT, Hypersil Gold 1.9µm , VisionHT™ Ultra High-Pressure Columns, Platinum™ HPLC Columns, GraceSmart™ HPLC Columns, YMC Fast LC Columns)and Poroshell columns can dramatically save solvent with their lower dimension and high efficiency.
Crawford Scientific offers solution for translating your current methods, please Click here for more information |
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Solution 2: Optimise your start-up, shut-down and column washing procedures.
Please contact us if you need advice or alternatively check Crawford Scientific Training course schedules for Troubleshooting and Maintenance training where these topics are covered in detail. |
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Solution 3: Recycle Acetonitrile
Acetonitrile could be recycle using a device which allows to switch the effluent to waste when components are eluting. This strategy is less beneficial when gradient or buffers are used.
Please click here for more information for solvent recycler
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Solution 4: Use alternative solvent.
Methanol can be used as an alternative solvent. It is possible to use a nomogram to estimate the methanol concentration necessary to give an equivalent run time for the separation. The selectivity of the separation will change and some re-development or even re-validation may be necessary , however this is unavoidable when switching between solvents. |
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Please contact us if you need help with developing your method.
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There are several useful software method conversion tools available when translating to different solvents or alternative particle sizes – the most effective non-commercial one can be found at http://www.unige.ch/sciences/pharm/fanal/lcap/divers/downloads.php |
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