Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Hybead (Hybrid Bead Adsorbents)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-07-01 do 2020-12-31
According to the United Nations, millions of people die annually from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, with children being particularly affected. Much of this is due to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, which, even at trace levels, pose considerable health risks. In such a context, there is a pressing need (and market opportunities) to develop highly efficient strategies, technologies and products to provide clean, safe water and adequate sanitation. Among the existing purification methods, an increasingly popular solution for ensuring clean and safe drinking water in homes is the use of adsorption-based water filters, given their affordability, efficacy and simplicity. In this Hybead project, a new technology called Hybead for home water-filters has been optimized, validated and protected. Hybead technology is based on an advanced composite microbead adsorbent (called UiO-66@CeO2 microbeads) made of the metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 and cerium (IV) oxide (CeO2) nanoparticles.
We have begun by optimizing the fabrication of UiO-66@CeO2 microbeads at the gram-scale using a green spray-drying synthetic protocol, ensuring the possibility to transfer it to any spray-drying pilot plan for their kilogram-scale synthesis. We have then successfully shaped these CeO2@UiO-66 microbeads in the form of millimeter-scale granules, membranes and sponges. As many of the adsorbents used in home water-filters (e.g. pitchers) are usually shaped in the form of granules, we have mainly focused on the shaped granules. In these granules, the CeO2@UiO-66 microbeads are encapsulated into porous, millimeter-sized polyethersulfone (PES) granules to create CeO2@UiO-66@PES granules. Next, we have validated these granules as an adsorbent for removal of metals from water, by substituting them for the standard absorbent (ion-exchange resin spheres) inside a commercially available water pitcher. We have assessed their performance according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) guideline 53-2019, “Drinking Water Treatment Units - Health Effects Standard”. Remarkably, a pitcher loaded with a combination of our CeO2@UiO-66@PES granules and activated carbon at standard ratios has met the target reduction thresholds set by NSF/ANSI 53-2019 for all the heavy metals tested: As(III), As(V), Cd(II), Cr(III), Cr(VI), Cu(II), Hg(II) and Pb(II). Throughout the test, the modified pitcher has proved to be robust and stable.
In addition, we have successfully performed an initial market analysis and protected Hybead technology by successfully performing a patent application, which will ensure its future commercialization, eventual economic benefits in the European chemical industry and, by extension, its arrival to end-users. Finally, once Hybead technology had been patented, we have started several disemination and commercialization actions in order to search, contact and start conversations with companies that would be interested in out-licensing the above-mentioned patent. Thus far, we have opened conversations with more than ten national and international companies. During the next months, our idea is to continue promoting the existing contacts and promoting new ones in order to find partners and/or establish collaborations with private companies that ensure further developing and transferring of our technology to the market.
We have begun by optimizing the fabrication of UiO-66@CeO2 microbeads at the gram-scale using a green spray-drying synthetic protocol, ensuring the possibility to transfer it to any spray-drying pilot plan for their kilogram-scale synthesis. We have then successfully shaped these CeO2@UiO-66 microbeads in the form of millimeter-scale granules, membranes and sponges. As many of the adsorbents used in home water-filters (e.g. pitchers) are usually shaped in the form of granules, we have mainly focused on the shaped granules. In these granules, the CeO2@UiO-66 microbeads are encapsulated into porous, millimeter-sized polyethersulfone (PES) granules to create CeO2@UiO-66@PES granules. Next, we have validated these granules as an adsorbent for removal of metals from water, by substituting them for the standard absorbent (ion-exchange resin spheres) inside a commercially available water pitcher. We have assessed their performance according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) guideline 53-2019, “Drinking Water Treatment Units - Health Effects Standard”. Remarkably, a pitcher loaded with a combination of our CeO2@UiO-66@PES granules and activated carbon at standard ratios has met the target reduction thresholds set by NSF/ANSI 53-2019 for all the heavy metals tested: As(III), As(V), Cd(II), Cr(III), Cr(VI), Cu(II), Hg(II) and Pb(II). Throughout the test, the modified pitcher has proved to be robust and stable.
In addition, we have successfully performed an initial market analysis and protected Hybead technology by successfully performing a patent application, which will ensure its future commercialization, eventual economic benefits in the European chemical industry and, by extension, its arrival to end-users. Finally, once Hybead technology had been patented, we have started several disemination and commercialization actions in order to search, contact and start conversations with companies that would be interested in out-licensing the above-mentioned patent. Thus far, we have opened conversations with more than ten national and international companies. During the next months, our idea is to continue promoting the existing contacts and promoting new ones in order to find partners and/or establish collaborations with private companies that ensure further developing and transferring of our technology to the market.