disposing of small quantities of hydrocarbons

K

kristoff34

Hi,
I have never worked with hydrocarbons before and I am a tad nervous about disposing of them. We have competent teachers who know how to preform the practical's. But I am a relatively new tech and will need to dispose of the waste. For testing unsaturation we do this as a demo only and there will be 2 test tubes with about 1cm depth in of each alkane and alkene. Advice of how to dispose of this will be grately appreciated.
Thanks In Advance
 
For tiny quantities I leave them in a small dish in the fume hood, but it depends how volatile your organics are as they might not evaporate. If you can't find any waste bottles already labelled, I would suggest you find 2 old glass bottles e.g. from organic deliveries ( 500ml to 1L) and label them halogenated alkanes ( which the alkene would produce with Bromine water) and non-halogenated alkenes. Keep them for a chemical waste pick up which you will need to organise every few years.
Don't forget to use a separating funnel to remove any aqueous layer before you put them in the waste bottles.
 
KimChem said:
For tiny quantities I leave them in a small dish in the fume hood, but it depends how volatile your organics are as they might not evaporate. If you can't find any waste bottles already labelled, I would suggest you find 2 old glass bottles e.g. from organic deliveries ( 500ml to 1L) and label them halogenated alkanes ( which the alkene would produce with Bromine water) and non-halogenated alkenes. Keep them for a chemical waste pick up which you will need to organise every few years.
Don't forget to use a separating funnel to remove any aqueous layer before you put them in the waste bottles.
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Thank you, appreciated!
 
I meant halogenated waste and non-halogenated waste- you don't need to separate out alkanes and alkenes, but the waste companies do want halogenated waste separated out. Sorry about the mis- type
 
Andrew Symonds said:
I pour them onto mineral wool in a metal container and burn it off in the fume cupboard, only test tube quantities though which is all they get.
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This sounds an interesting idea, can you explain how you burn them off in practice? I guess you don't just mean leave them to evaporate
 
mezzyd said:
This sounds an interesting idea, can you explain how you burn them off in practice? I guess you don't just mean leave them to evaporate
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Just had a thought; maybe you could have a "disposing spirit burner" and just dump it in there and burn it off, probably safer that way?
 
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