We have a range of activities that we are currently involved with. These range from large infrastructure (eg wind responsive fumehood project) to smaller-scale behaviour change initiatives and introducing more environmentally friendly ways of doing chemistry research. Click on the images below to see what we are up to.
Extraction of air via fume hoods uses up large amounts of energy, but there are measures in building 30 to minimise this usage. All the fumes hoods in the building are of the variable air volume (VAV) type. These extract air at a constant velocity, but the volume being pumped out through the hood in a …
Policies have been put in place at a departmental level to encourage the adoption of sustainable practice. These include: Timers on glassware drying ovens. These prevent the ovens from running un-necessarily all the time, cutting energy costs. Using Quartzy Inventory systems. This is an electronic database of chemicals stocked by groups in the department. If …
Starting the project In order to find the optimal conditions for a reaction to be as environmentally friendly as possible, there are three main factors: The power usage of the reaction, the percent yield of the reaction (to lower waste material) and the reaction solvent. Baring these in mind, using the JMP Design of Experiment software, …
Postgraduate Education Embedding sustainable practice will come by winning over the people who actually work in the laboratories – that is the PhD students and Post Doctoral workers. Education is therefore key! Sustainable Practice will be embedded in PhD student induction training as part of the current Safety course (CHEM6116) – a requirement for all …
Our flagship project at the moment is “Try before you buy”. Funded by the University Carbon Management plan, we have established a small working lab equipped with some of the most current environmentally economical apparatus. State of the art equipment includes: – closed loop cooling for RoVaps …
