In April 2020, the Green-Lab product line of Auwii Instrument—solvent safety caps, dip-tube waste-collection units and funnel-type collectors—added another chapter to the environmental protection of Chinese laboratories. Not long ago, a lab in south-west China came to us for help with the waste liquid generated by its HPLC unit.
In April 2020, the Green-Lab product line of Auwii Instrument—solvent safety caps, dip-tube waste-collection units and funnel-type collectors—added another chapter to the environmental protection of Chinese laboratories. Not long ago, a lab in south-west China came to us for help with the waste liquid generated by its HPLC unit.
The research group owned one HPLC system. As is well known, high-performance liquid chromatography is a separation and analysis technique that uses a liquid mobile phase; the stationary phase can take many forms (paper, thin-layer plate, packed bed, etc.). The mobile phase is driven by a pump through the injection valve, mixes with the sample, passes through the column where adsorption and separation occur, and finally each component reaches the detector, is converted into an electrical signal, and appears as a peak on the workstation.
Because the group ran a large variety of mobile phases—aqueous (formic acid, acetic acid, perchloric acid) and organic (methanol, acetonitrile, dichloromethane)—the main waste stream came from the mobile phase and the liquid sample after column separation. Ordinary solvent bottles had been used for collection; volatilisation produced a strong odour that made the laboratory environment unbearable. As soon as the teacher saw our products on-line, he contacted us immediately.
The teacher chose our dip-tube collector. Its ports accept both soft tubing (ID 4–8 mm) and rigid tubing (OD 1.6–3.2 mm), and the cap can be fitted with a range of exhaust filters that adsorb vapours efficiently. A built-in timer records service time and reminds the user when to replace the filter. A PVDF float switch provides accurate level detection and prevents overfilling.
