The SolventTrak Solvent Recycler, available from Anachem, is said to provide a simple, practical, cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to help conserve acetonitrile supplies.
Reduced production of acrylic fibres as a result of the economic downturn is causing a worldwide shortage of the solvent.
The reduced availability of acetonitrile has caused rising prices and has made it very difficult to obtain supplies for laboratories worldwide.
The solvent conservation system is said to be able to recover up to 90 per cent of the solvent for re-use.
It is designed to recycle uncontaminated solvents used in isocratic HPLC systems.
Traditional recycling systems use a fixed-voltage level (or threshold above baseline) that must be exceeded before peaks can be detected.
If the baseline changes, new settings must be applied or contaminants may be recycled instead of being sent to waste.
Conversely, pure solvent may be sent to waste instead of being recycled.
SolventTrak incorporates an integration algorithm, which is designed to accurately detect peaks in the eluent.
This ensures all contaminants are eliminated, even if chromatography system conditions cause the baseline to drift up or down.
The clean, uncontaminated solvent is sent back to the reservoir for recycling.
SolventTrak can be installed into any isocratic LC system and features automatic performance validation.
The system is calibrated to NIST standards and comes with a certificate of calibration.