Acetonitrile Shortage

[Jade.Barker]

will asia be affected by the shortage?

If it is a critical supply for your lab then you should speak to your Vendor as soon as possible. Also, you may want to speak to any friendly labs you know, they might be able to share any excess stock.

For example, our lab is in a building with many other labs, but they are all in very different industries so we are not in competition. We are all like neighbors, we are able to help each other if someone has a problem. Good luck

[lmh]

May I reinforce emsnyder's sensible suggestion?

Using 3mm or 2mm columns is really a no-brainer, requiring virtually no work to convert the method. In fact, in view of the shortage, it's almost selfish to carry on eating vast quantities of acetonitrile to maintain out-of-date methods on columns that verge on semi-prep.

Further, while 10-year-old hplc systems are frequently more than enough to handle a gradient at 0.2mL/min, there are increasing numbers of hplc systems out there that are really not optimised to pump a good gradient at 1mL/min, having been designed with smaller columns in mind. Transferring a 1mL/min method to a modern hplc might be a step down rather than a step up.

Yes, there will be people with highly-controlled environments, but sometimes I feel people should consider Lufthansa: The airline could quite reasonably have stuck to ferrying their passengers around in biplanes on the grounds that we know they fly, and if we start updating to modern jets, who knows? It'll be loads of work getting jets approved for passenger flight...

Let's see this as an opportunity (a) to get environmentally friendly and slim down those columns (b) to reconsider whether it mightn't be time to revalidate a method and get rid of any remaining irregular-particle first-generation C18 methods, and (c) reconsider whether we actually chose acetonitrile based on some useful optimisation, or whether methanol might have done the job just as well.

There are plenty of methods around that merely developed, rather than were developed.

[jrehm]

[quote]
Using 3mm or 2mm columns is really a no-brainer, requiring virtually no work to convert the method. In fact, in view of the shortage, it's almost selfish to carry on eating vast quantities of acetonitrile to maintain out-of-date methods on columns that verge on semi-prep.

Further, while 10-year-old hplc systems are frequently more than enough to handle a gradient at 0.2mL/min, there are increasing numbers of hplc systems out there that are really not optimised to pump a good gradient at 1mL/min, having been designed with smaller columns in mind. Transferring a 1mL/min method to a modern hplc might be a step down rather than a step up.
[/quote]

FYI - Eksigent has released multiple HPLC systems optimized specifically for small columns, precise 'low' flowrates optimized for those columns, with direct pumping and no flow splitting.... it's about as green you can get in HPLC. No to mention improved retention time reproducibility and improved sensitivity... what's not to like?

Sure, you'll have to spend a few dollars on a new LC, but you'll make up the cost in solvent savings in a year!

The solvent shortage issue should be seen by lab managers as yet another reason to modernize their lab equipment and implement 'greener' practices in general...

[Bruce Hamilton]

FYI - Eksigent has released multiple HPLC systems optimized specifically for small columns, precise 'low' flowrates optimized for those columns, with direct pumping and no flow splitting.... it's about as green you can get in HPLC. No to mention improved retention time reproducibility and improved sensitivity... what's not to like?

Sure, you'll have to spend a few dollars on a new LC, but you'll make up the cost in solvent savings in a year!

The solvent shortage issue should be seen by lab managers as yet another reason to modernize their lab equipment and implement 'greener' practices in general...

Assuming 1 ml/min of 100% CH3CN, 24/7/365.25 = 526 litres/year
But 150 - 200 litre is my current annual requirement for each analytical HPLC. My last price for gradient grade, low UV CH3CN was US$17.20/L, and I could obtain it for lower than that if I was ordering 100 Litre at a time..

525 litres would cost US$9,050, and waste solvent disposal cost is $0.50/litre. Simple HPLCs start at about $35,000, and a UPLC is about $65,000 in NZ.

I've no idea which is greener, using a solvent-guzzling more mature HPLC until support ceases, or investing in a young pristine solvent-sipping hunk of plastic, Al, SS, with associated computers etc that required serious energy/resources to produce.

However, I know which option my bank manager and accountant are going to support after viewing the above data.

A little evangelism lurks around this thread.

Bruce Hamilton

[ryan]

Has anyone actually had their supply reduced to a level where it is hindering their ability to carry out lab work?

The main stories I can find on this are people like waters or Melbourn scientific promoting their green analysis solutions off the back of the shortage. I agree though - it does seem to be time to move away from old wasteful methods to thinner columns, shorter run times etc.

[Stryder08]

Has anyone actually had their supply reduced to a level where it is hindering their ability to carry out lab work?

The main stories I can find on this are people like waters or Melbourn scientific promoting their green analysis solutions off the back of the shortage. I agree though - it does seem to be time to move away from old wasteful methods to thinner columns, shorter run times etc.

We have come close to depleting our stock a few times so far, but we've been lucky to receive shipments just at the right time. As a lab, we utilize alot of acetonitrile, specifically for mobile phases. Also, most of our assays are precipitations with ACN and we are a high volume lab.

[ARBE98]

My biggest problem is not necesarily the amount of ACN used during the run but sample prep.....although ACN usage in the eluent is an issue that should be addressed. I still have an impurities method on a 4.6 x 250 mm, 5 micron column. I use a little over 40 mL of ACN during the run, but I use 100 mL ACN to dilute the sample. I have another method on a sub-2 micron column that uses 9 mL of ACN per run, but it takes 100 mL of ACN to dilute that sample as well. My problem is sample prep!

[Schmitty]

My biggest problem is not necesarily the amount of ACN used during the run but sample prep.....although ACN usage in the eluent is an issue that should be addressed. I still have an impurities method on a 4.6 x 250 mm, 5 micron column. I use a little over 40 mL of ACN during the run, but I use 100 mL ACN to dilute the sample. I have another method on a sub-2 micron column that uses 9 mL of ACN per run, but it takes 100 mL of ACN to dilute that sample as well. My problem is sample prep!

Instead of diluting your whole sample to 100mL, can you get away with diluting 1/10th of the sample to 10mL instead?

[Uwe Neue]

The use of acetonitrile in a protein precipitation can be easily circumvented by using SPE. I have advocated SPE in many posts - it is a superior technique to the protein precipitation, and it is not terribly complicated. There are well proven, pre-cooked methods around that will work with any sample. Contact me if you want more info, or look at the Waters website for information on SPE techniques with Oasis.

[FSE]

We got lucky at our university - our store still had the ACN at before-shortage price level. However it's now not our usual brand (was Caledon distilled in glass grade - now it's mallinckrodt HPLC-grade). So we have now a years supply and I might run into the problem that my prof will ask me to make the HPLC-grade to distilled-in-glass-grade. Does anybody have a SOP or is there a paper so I can check to make sure not to mess it up?

some extra details: our vendor (KSE Scientific) told us that they simply don't know when there is going to be more around - could be January 2009 or 2010.
Oh yes, we also use methanol (for LC-MS) but it is not as effective as ACN - has anybody tried to mix it up with ACN to avoid those notorious MeOH/H2O clusters (cause for the backpressure and the different retention behavior) - this could also help to save some of our precious ACN

[Kostas Petritis]

HPLC grade ACN should be of equal of greater quality than the distilled-in-glass-grade so I wouldn't worry about it...

[Alfred88]

Dear all:
We are also affected by the shortage. We have ordered short columns (3um, rather than standard 5um particles Si) to be implemented soon, to reduce solvent use.

However, we may run out of our MeCN inventory soon. Anyone can share info on a supplier of MeCN for under $1100 USD/case? (1 case=4 x4L).
We have placed orders with several vendors (Fisher/ VWR/Spectrum/ PharmCo etc), and they all declared out-of-stock, or back-order for months.

I found a link here (Chinese language) with some links:
http://www.chemicalbook.com/ChemicalPro ... =CB2127174

We are willing to consider mfg's from China and India.

Alfred

[ryan]

Has anyone here got extensive experience of reducing solvent usage/ green bioanalytical chemistry? If so, I would like to discuss this with you in more detail. Please email me at r.devooght-johnson@future-science.com

[steve@labhut]

Hello all,

I was just wondering if anyone had thought about recycling there solvent? We supply a product that saves up to 90% of solvent consumption which can pay for its self in 2 months. And of course, once you have it, your overall consumption is reduced anyway, meaning lower ACN costs in the future.

If you're interested, the contact details are on our website, give us a call. Here is a link:

SolventTrak Solvent Recycler

[greenlab]

The consumption of acetonitrile and other mobile phase solvents can be dramatically reduced using a good mobile phase recycler system like the SolventTrak. The SolventTrak is designed to re-use the uncontaminated mobile phase generated during the chromatographic run, saving money and time in your laboratory operations. It seems to me that this acetonitrile shortage situation is a good opportunity to get more cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives. Visit our web page for more information. http://www.greenlab.ws/green_lab_5_002.htm