Labs that use animals in their research do A LOT of cage washing — and that’s not just water down the drain, but money too. Ditto with single pass water for autoclaving and cooling. With the conservation of resources in mind—and the budget—some labs are closing the loop and finding ways to reuse water safely, even if it’s just for flushing toilets or watering the shrubbery.

Priorclave Customers Lead By Example

Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, has a relatively new aquaculture lab at their Falk School of Sustainability. Every day, this lab exchanges 10% of the water in their three 500-gallon tanks to keep the habitats clean for the trout they study. The lab then diverts that nutritive waste water to feed tomato plants at the campus’s garden, saving money on commercial fertilizer and irrigation.

Reusing lab gray water will probably involve some type of treatment first. Reverse osmosis (pushing water through a specialized membrane) is a cost effective process that removes over 90% of contaminants. Deionization is an additional step labs can take, if ultra-pure water is a targeted need. Of course, using less water to begin with is always the best place to start. Priorclave North America is always pleased to help researchers think through the best way to increase the efficiency of their sterilization process. Give us a call, no strings attached.

[Photo credit: Alan Levine, CC BY 2.0]