by Lakshmi Krishnan, GC-MS Product Manager, Mass Spectrometry Division, Agilent Technologies
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in sustainability initiatives in the sciences and technologies sectors. As global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries have shown significant carbon footprints, scientific labs in this sector have steadily been establishing intentional sustainability programs to decrease their environmental footprint.
Accompanying this effort has been a growing desire from scientific labs for analytical instrument vendors to provide "greener" systems, consumables, and overall operational transparency that helps customers understand various vendors' and solutions' sustainability consciousness. Customers are also interested in vendors’ net zero commitments, energy-efficient instrumentation, use of recyclable materials in production and packaging, and a greener supply chain. Companies, including Agilent, have partnered with non-profit environmental organizations — for example, My Green Lab — that independently audit lab instruments and operations to provide eco-labels, making it easier for consumers to choose environmentally-friendly products and vendors.
These sustainability initiatives have been a driver for increased innovation in scientific product development, including alternative and more sustainable materials. An example is the use of hydrogen gas instead of helium gas. Helium has long been the carrier gas for gas chromatography (GC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses. However, helium is a finite resource, and global shortages have reduced its availability — and increased the cost — jeopardizing the operations of labs that depend on helium use for their gas chromatography.
Hydrogen is a renewable gas and is lower cost. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hydrogen can be produced from diverse domestic resources with the potential for near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Once produced, hydrogen generates electrical power in a fuel cell, emitting only water vapor and warm air. This holds great promise not only for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors but also for growth in the stationary and transportation energy sectors.1
Hydrogen is not only a suitable alternative, but also a sustainable one. Therefore, instrument vendors have sought ways to introduce its use into GC-MS instruments. But because it is not inert, hydrogen does not work well with semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and downsides such as reduced sensitivity and reactivity in the mass spec source have limited the adoption. Consequently, analytical instrument vendors have been innovating.
Agilent, for example, has developed its HydroInert source,2 which helps address this problem and is designed to improve chromatographic efficiencies with hydrogen carrier gas. Agilent HydroInert source technology addresses in-source reaction problems that significantly reduce catalytic activity and tailing. Improvements include faster, shorter separations, reduced loss of sensitivity and spectral anomalies, and superior high-boiler peak shape.
Lakshmi Krishnan, GC-MS product manager in the Mass Spectrometry Division at Agilent, explains, “In other words, while previously, a system could run on hydrogen but with some limitations in data, we are now able to see a substantial improvement with the use of HydroInert, thus proving that analytical performance need not be compromised for a sustainable solution.”
Agustin Pierri, Ph.D., technical director at Weck Labs, adds, “HydroInert is great. Replacing the helium carrier gas with hydrogen on our GC-MSs nearly eliminates our need for helium. This eases a major pain point for commercial labs. Also, the on-going source cleaning greatly improves our instrument up-time and decreases our maintenance costs.”
While some labs still prefer helium as the carrier gas for GC-MS, with solutions like HydroInert, many can switch easily to hydrogen as a suitable alternative when helium is unavailable. The HydroInert product is designed to enable a broader range of applications, and there are many GC-MS applications, such as semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), tested with excellent results so far.
Agilent is on an active and intentional path toward improving sustainability in all areas of its business, including internal operations and the products and technologies it develops. This will ensure that Agilent reaches its net zero goals and will also be able to assist customers in reducing their lab’s environmental impact and achieving their own sustainability goals while in tandem solving some of the most significant scientific challenges today and advancing the quality of life.
References
- https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/Hydrogen_benefits.html
- https://www.agilent.com/en/product/gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry-gc-ms/gc-ms-supplies-accessories/hydroinert-source-for-Hydrogen-carrier-gas-on-gc-ms