Open Collections

Halogenated organic waste identification : qualitative method

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

The Environmental Services Facility (ESF) part of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Risk Management Services manages the disposal of hazardous chemical and biological waste generated by the various research laboratories at UBC. In a typical year, the ESF receives over 70 metric tonnes of waste from various university laboratories across the UBC campus of which approximately 17.5% is composed of halogenated organics. Although the UBC Laboratory Pollution Prevention and Hazardous Waste Manual requires each lab to segregate their solvent waste into allocated halogenated and non-halogenated containers, many containers labeled as non-halogenated waste have been found to be contaminated with halogens. Since the disposal method of these two types of waste is quite different, as non-halogenated waste can be recycled while halogenated needs to be incinerated, and due to higher treatment cost for halogenated waste, it is crucial that a simple, reliable and cost-effective protocol be established in order to identify the non-halogenated containers that have been contaminated with halogens. The ultimate goals of this project are to devise a reliable experimental method to safely identify contaminated waste containers, and to minimize the costs associated with solvent waste disposal. In the first part of the project, we examined the efficiency of a nitric acid and silver nitrate precipitation method in identifying waste containers that were contaminated with halogens. Furthermore two additional set of experiments involving ammonia were tested, in an attempt to identify the type and mass of each halogen present. The silver nitrate test was proven to be reliable and efficient in identifying 6 out of 10 contaminated containers which were originally labeled as non-halogenated. The dilute and concentrated ammonia tests however were not successful in identifying the type of halogen ion present in the samples and hence this test will not be continued by the succeeding group of students, who will be continuing on the project. It should be noted that the funding for this project was provided by the UBC Alma Master Society Sustainability Projects Fund through a Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) grant. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. CHBE 464; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108854

Applied Science, Faculty of; Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/