Every year, the importance of environmental preservation is more notable. One of the forms of contamination to be reduced in favor of the environment is the disposal of waste from chemical processes. In most industries, there is already some type of treatment and reuse of waste, however in universities this type of concern is not so recurring. During the experiments developed in university research laboratories, several residues are generated, without previous evaluation of the feasibility of reuse. This fact can be attributed to the view that generation of reduced and complex amounts of effluents occurs. But is this true? Are there no feasibility situations for reusing these effluents? To answer these questions, DOPOLAB decided to show and employ some of the principles of green chemistry, in some case studies.The DOPOLAB analyzed four case studies of wastewater of research laboratories in UFRJ. In two cases, the effluent involved an oil matrix in organic solvents. In the other two cases, the effluent contained acetone in different matrices. For each of the cases, a specific flowchart for the separation and purification of the solvents involved was proposed, and further evaluation of the feasibility of reuse.The residues were distilled in differentiated distillation systems, controlling the duration of the activity and characterizing and evaluating the purity of the solvents obtained by gas chromatography. In some cases, other treatments were necessary for adequate purification of solvents. As a result of this study, it was observed that in cases where the effluent was segregated involving a matrix in one or at most two solvents, the viability of reuse was possible. In the case of previous non-segregation, with matrix and more than 3 solvents, the viability becomes more complex, expensive and unfeasible. The analysis of the recovery efficiency and the economic viability of the applied methodologies was made based on the comparison of the techniques applied to the different solvents. And so, the importance of prior evaluation of the residues generated in the research for adequate storage and segregation was confirmed. This can guarantee the viability and reuse of solvents, in addition to less waste disposed of safely and cleanly at the end of the entire process.

Importance of correct segregation of waste for feasibility of reuse of organic solvents

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.