June 2022 – Reach Separations in Strasbourg opened with two employees, one analytical LC-MS, one analytical SFC-MS and one preparative SFC, The ABsys kit in the lab. 2023 reserves a lot of changes and improvements and that’s only the beginning… Already nearing the end of summer, let’s take a look at 2023 so far…
Key numbers
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4 | New kits (preparative & analytical) |
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6 | Conferences attended |
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2 | Presentations given |
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573 | Kilometres cycled in June for the challenge “Au boulot à vélo” |
After our first Christmas party with the British and the French teams reunited, beginning of our 2nd year at Reach Separations SAS was rich in development, purification, and sustainability.
Development
Two new instruments joined our analytical lab – an SFC-UV (SIM/Agilent) able to collect and isolate small fractions, as well as a GC-FID (Agilent), used as QC for natural products such as cannabidiol or fatty acids.
Other analytical services have also been developed. In Strasbourg, we now routinely perform EPSA analysis, as can our colleagues in Nottingham. Pleasingly, we’ve seen consistent results across sites, further validating our protocols.
Stability studies are now available to monitor the chemical degradation of a product by LC-UV-MS in a controlled environment. Depending on the client’s needs, it is possible to adapt the parameters of incubation (T°C), the conditions tested (pH, container, mix…), the type of detection (UV or MS), and also the internal standard.
We are aware that scientific needs are evolving very fast. Hence, our aim has been to be closer to customers by attending relevant conferences (6 so far this year) and engaging with the scientific community. As always, our goal is to adapt rapidly to our clients’ needs so please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Purification
Several chiral separations have been achieved on our ABprep kit (ABsys GmbH) from milligram to multi-gram scale. Routinely, detection is performed using UV/vis. However, we’re also able to utilise ELS detection for non-chromophoric compounds (Check out our blog on SFC-ELSD)
We are also building a new partnership with SFE Process, who have released their first preparative SFC instrument. The instrument can operate with 100% CO2 and utilises a recycle loop, helping us develop methods which are as green as possible…
Sustainability
We are continuously looking for ways we can limit and lower our carbon footprint. To study our processes, we undertook a study comparing the achiral purification of Piperine by HPLC and SFC, in terms of productivity and green chemistry. We were fortunate to then present this work during the AFSEP congress in March 2023.
Our Strasbourg team are also working on a internal Achiral SFC screening project, with the aim of reducing solvent consumption and energy usage by reducing reliance on HPLC
Away from science, each of our employees in Strasbourg currently commutes via bicycle and/or train. Hence, it was obvious for us to join the “Au boulot à vélo” challenge for a month in June. We’re proud to have finished 35th out of 245 companies (in the 3-20 company size), for total distance cycled! Not bad to say there are only 3 of us…for now!
Other events and improvements are planned before the end of the year. So stay tuned!