The goal of the Solvent Recovery Initiative Team is to design protocols to recycle and reuse solvents in chemistry laboratories at Concordia. Starting as a team of 15 in the Howarth lab, they will extensively test different methods for recycling and purifying solvent waste like

(1) simple filtration,

(2) centrifugation, and

(3) rotary evaporation.

We will test the level of chemical contamination before and after purification protocols and test how the recycled solvents perform in subsequent chemical reactions to validate methods. Eventually, the goal is to expand our protocols to other research laboratories in the Chemistry and Biochemistry department at Concordia, to reduce not only the solvent waste produced in the Howarth lab (~15 people), but also the waste produced by our entire department (~110 people).