UAB Department of Chemistry graduate student Jaden Cowan uses waterless condensers. UAB’s Green Labs program piloted two water conservation measures in four UAB chemistry laboratories in 2021. The team installed waterless condensers in place of traditional condensers and vacuum pumps to replace water aspirators. Nick Ciancio, sustainability program coordinator with UAB Sustainability, has worked closely with the labs to make the transition.

“The water conservation efforts that we’ve deployed in the Department of Chemistry illustrate the opportunities research labs have to save a significant amount of resources – including water,” Ciancio said. “This initiative not only shows the potential resource savings when different departments collaborate, but it also illustrates how committed UAB is to achieving President Watts’s goal of reaching our Gold STARS certification and fulfilling goals outlined in our Sustainability Strategic Plan.”

A traditional condenser uses large amounts of water to condense vapors into liquids by cooling them down. They are routinely used for various lab operations, such as distillation, reflux, and extraction. Because the condensers run anywhere from several hours to nearly a week, using around 13 gallons of water from the tap per hour, labs are already using a large amount of water. Unfortunately, the traditional condensers are at a higher risk of causing flooding because the tubes connected to the sink could fail. This has resulted in overnight flooding in the past. The newly installed waterless condensers use no water, eliminating the flooding risk and dramatically reducing the amount of water these labs use.

“It is pretty common to run multiple reactions at one time in organic synthesis,” said graduate student Jaden Cowan. “The waterless condensers will make this easier because it eliminates using multiple taps with water lines running throughout our fume hoods.”

The water aspirators being used in the labs were consuming more water than the condensers. They were being run 40 hours per week and using nearly four gallons of water per minute. The new vacuum pumps will save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each year.

These initiatives alone will save enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in three years. UAB Green Labs Program reduces the use of energy, water, material goods, and hazardous chemicals in UAB laboratories without compromising research integrity or safety.

Any lab on the UAB campus can email greenlabs@uab.edu to be a part of the program. Labs have six months to implement changes recommended by UAB Sustainability to earn a Green Lab certification.