Chromatography Forum

How are people addressing HILIC methods and shortage of ACN?
We have a few HILIC methods for very polar compounds with up to 95% of ACN!!!!! Some of these methods are LC/MS, some are UV.
We tried to replace ACN with MeOH and EtOH, but retention and resolution decreased beyond the point of acceptance. THF and dioxane are out of question, due to several reasons (peroxides, sensitivity in LC/MS, etc.). Switching to 2 mm column is not an option for most of our methods. Right now price of ACN is around $80-100/L now, compared to $10/L in 2007-2008, and availability is low.
In our RP methods we switched to MeOH, IPA and EtOH or combination of alcohol and ACN, but HILIC is trickier.

I am planning to attend "HILIC Day" at ASMS, but that is two months away, and I need to have some solutions (non-ACN) to this problem.

Try acetone for MS applications! It has similar solvent properties to acetonitrile, but it is a problem for UV applications due to its UV absorption.

We've had suppliers tell us that they have now in stock some ACN, but at up to $1500 a case, HPLC grade. We're not buying any; we're developing and re-validating test procedures that do not use ACN.

I would just swallow hard, use sensible conservation methods, and pay for CH3CN.

Acetonitrile became so popular because it had superior HPLC properties to many cheaper alternatives ( eg low wavelength UV transparency, minimal gradient viscosity changes, useful polarity etc etc ).

There have been many "shortages" over the past couple of decades, and this supply situation appears little different, other than the baseline HPLC demand is much greater.

The current price for gradient HPLC grade here is around US $120 for a 4 litre container, which is about 2x what it was a year ago, and supply seems to be OK as well, but a little forward ordering might be good insurance, especially if it's critical to your business.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

I agree with Bruce. Even at $100/L, the cost of ACN is a relatively small part of the total cost of an analysis.

My colleague John Dolan put together a "mini seminar" on some of the issues and alternatives:
http://www.lcresources.com/more_resourc ... p?f=3&t=20

It's not officially part of Chrom Forum, so you will have to register separately to access it (still free, though).

We've had suppliers tell us that they have now in stock some ACN, but at up to $1500 a case, HPLc grade. We're not buying any; we're developing and re-validating test procedures that do not use ACN.

I agree with Bruce. Even at $100/L, the cost of ACN is a relatively small part of the total cost of an analysis.

Right, even our contract manufacturers are starting to understand that labor is greatest cost, then ACN is just one of many consumables such as column costs, vial costs, filter costs, glassware washing costs/breakage. The reason we're developing and validating non-ACN test procedures is primarily to protect against complete unavailability of ACN and not for cost savings. So I agree with Tom.

I don't know may be New Zealand has own supply of ACN, but here in US price per case ranges from $1000 to $1900 (4/4) with the back order for 2-6 months, this is almost $100/L. We are one of column manufacturers and if 3 years ago nobody asked about price of the column, now people asking "Can I get 5% discount of I buy two columns?" Almost every other customers asks us to reduce consumption/price impact of ACN, so I am not buying "cost of ACN is a relatively small part of the total cost of an analysis".
If you have an instrument which pumps 80% ACN with 1 ml/min (typical HILIC) then average lab which uses the instrument 150 days a week, 10 h per day will "waste" extra: 0.8x60x10x20x150x75/1000=$5,400...and some labs are doing it 300 days 20 h a day or $21,600/year for busy labs. This is not considering impact on environment and cost of waste disposal. I know that this might be a minor number, but why not save this money if you can. The relative impact of ACN cost in countries like India and China is much higher - PhD salary there is probably equal to $15-25K/year. So unless you are manufacturer of ACN or sell HILiC columns (which we are) I have no idea why you cannot justify switching from 80% of ACN to 5% or avoid it. May be a analytical chemist is not worrying about this but at least middle level management must look at this.
For me it is like this: You are walking in a park and see money on the ground you will bend a little to pick up 10 dollars, and somebody needs to see $100 in order to do this (and then return money to the owner if you can find him/her). So it is up to each individual to decide when to put some efforts to get/save money...for your company. May be you can put this in your yearly review and get a bonus or a raise, because saving 10-20K per instrument sounds very good to me.

I don't know may be New Zealand has own supply of ACN, but here in US price per case ranges from $1000 to $1900 (4/4) with the back order for 2-6 months, this is almost $100/L. ... Almost every other customers asks us to reduce consumption/price impact of ACN, so I am not buying "cost of ACN is a relatively small part of the total cost of an analysis".
If you have an instrument which pumps 80% ACN with 1 ml/min (typical HILIC) then average lab which uses the instrument 150 days a week, 10 h per day will "waste" extra: 0.8x60x10x20x150x75/1000=$5,400...and some labs are doing it 300 days 20 h a day or $21,600/year for busy labs. This is not considering impact on environment and cost of waste disposal.

I don't want to get into a dispute, and I agree that conservation is sensible. I am not sure about capital expenditure based on a price spikes - how many companies sold corporate cars and bought more fuel-efficient ones last year solely based on projected fuel savings?. The current price of gasoline is going to play havoc with projected savings

I've just purchased some CH3CN at the quoted $NZ price from a global supplier. Sigma Aldrich are also offering gradient grade here at US$57/litre. The US$ "cost" has increased by 11% as the US$ has depreciated against the other currencies over the last 2 weeks, which may partially explain some of the difference.

As I said in the other Acetonitrile Shortage thread, if a supplier is opportunity costing, look elsewhere. I also performed a similar calculation to yours to refute a claim that the capital cost of an lower usage instrument could be recovered by solvent savings in a year. at $100$/L 10 x 150 x 60 x 0.8 = $7,200. Assume new system would yield 20% of consumption then $5,760. Waste disposal cost is about $0.50/L, so add another $34 saving.

Here, a UPLC starts at around US$65,000, laboratory staff are paid around US$30,000 pa. So, one HPLC's depreciation alone ( 8 years ) is going to be much more than the saving. Labour will be several times more ( depending on labour content / instrument ).

Here, many research organisations here have overheads that are multiples of wages ( 2 - 3 times is typical ). Increased acetonitrile cost has to be factored into costs, but where to expend capital to maximise returns will vary according to company.

If acetonitrile is critical to your business, it's relatively easy to arrange forward orders from most major suppliers, including purchasing in bulk at lower prices, and a good relationship with your supplier may minimise opportunity costing.

If you need to replace old equipment then it's obviously sensible to look at the potential future savings, but I suspect that acetonitrile price will follow supply and demand trends and continue to decrease as new CH3CN suppliers take the opportunity to make some serious money.

It's also a great time for instrument, and column , suppliers to encourage users to downsize - the economics have never been better - shame about the recession though....

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

Deficit and high prices of ACN migt stay for long time-until US and other ecconomies will improve to the 2006-2007 levels. ACN is produced as by product of acrylonitirle. Acrylonitrile production is down 25-30%, so production of ACN is down too (car plastics, carpets, other building materials based on acrylonitrile). Because ACN is produced as by- product the only cost impact on ACN price is purification (removal of unreacted SM), distillation mark-ups,etc. These justified price around $10/l. Now if you need to produce ACN you need to do it by other methods (acetic acid+ammonia, carbon monoxide+ammonia, etc.). These processes are different and will cost more than acrylonitrile process. If price will stay high somebody will produce it with these new methods but as soon as price drops these processes will be hard to maintain and make money. If demand will drop due to the people switching to alternative tecniques price will drop too.
I know that impact of ACN is low, but if you address ACN problem at the method development stage you will be saving money for years, at multiple locations and multiple projects....just my opinion.

Hi,

We can supply ACN - EMD OmniSolv AX0142-1 HPLC Gradient grade in 4 X 4 L cases. List from EMD' site is $1280.96.

We sell it for about 30% off list at $899.00.
That works out to $56.19 / liter.
No price gouging here!

Just type Acetonitrile in Google and you should find our ad or simply call us at 888-522-3472.

Best regards.
ESP Chemicals Inc.

now i am staying in china ,do routine work about the medicine analysis upon the pharmacopeia.the shortage of ACN seems affact us more heavily than yours .because the salaries and the expense of reagent in our lab seems getting higher than last year .now a 4 liter pakage ACN in china has fallen to 120 $.our ACN is provide by MERK.and other brand will be more cheaper .maybe 110$.3 months ago the price was 200$ . and as for us the main reason we cannot change the ACN to METHOL is that we are doing experiment upon the phamacopia .and you cannot change the methods if you want to analysis sample .
i agree with the viewpoint that the main cost in a lab is not reagent ,you can calculate the cost of labor or instrument .then you can know which is the main cost ,and change to other methods is whether a bargain.
hah ,i know Dollan, and i am now reading the book he wrote about the HPLC methods development . it is very useful for me .