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MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

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<strong>MCI</strong> 6242 Recycled Alcohol Used with Natural History Collections<br />

<strong>MCI</strong> Staff: Jennifer Giaccai<br />

This project explored the use of a commercially available alcohol distillation unit to<br />

recycle waste alcohol from various specimen jars in the collection of the National Museum of<br />

Natural History. If the recycled alcohol was proven to be of high purity it could be reused in<br />

sample processing and storage, minimizing the amount of hazardous waste produced and the<br />

amount of new alcohol purchased. The alcohol was sampled both before and after distillation for<br />

analysis. Although there is a clear visual difference in the alcohol before and after distillation, a<br />

strong fish odor remained in the recycled samples. GC-MS confirmed that many compounds<br />

present in the alcohol before distillation were also present after distillation and that the recycled<br />

alcohol was never as pure as fresh alcohol. In at least one case, contaminants from earlier<br />

distillation runs remained in the still and were carried over into a subsequent distillation run.<br />

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