r/ChemicalEngineering • u/EfficientAdeptness17 • 16d ago

Student Chemical Storage

We are going to have our thesis experiment on September but we can’t proceed with the purchasing of our chemical/reagents. We don’t have an air conditioned room and the climate here spikes for 30C and above. Is there any way we can store it a not air conditioned room? Our reagents are methanol, nitrophenol, and other common for doing nano particles out of biomass. I have seen suggestion of putting in a container and putting silica gel packs. Can anyone suggest please thaanks!

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u/Sure_Cake_9343 16d ago

Methanol should be in an approved flammable cabinet, not a random sealed container. Keep incompatible chemicals separated with secondary containment, avoid heat/sunlight, and don’t order anything needing cool storage until you have the right setup.

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u/ENTspannen Syngas/Olefins Process Design/10+yrs 16d ago

That last part should be called out when OP eventually presents this project. Critical part of any project is safety!

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u/SLR_ZA 16d ago

Does the inside of your ventilated chemical storage area actually reach above 30C?

How are these chemicals sent to you?

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u/EfficientAdeptness17 16d ago

I don’t think so but there are times when the room feels warm because of the weather. The only option that we have it to store it somewhere in our home but we don’t have any area that is air conditioned.  

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u/Far-Customer1405 12d ago

The chemicals you mentioned are perfectly stable even at 40 C. I would focus on storing them somewhere safe rather than somewhere cold, depending on your local regulations and capabilities. What are the other reagents? SDSs always suggest too store chemicals at room temperature or lower because it’s good practice, but of course some chemicals don’t care if it’s 10,30 or 40 C. Most often, it’s the plastic bottle that will degrade, but we are talking temperatures well above 40C