N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMG) is a chelating molecule used for environmental purposes for its high efficiency and selectivity versus metal ions species. The technology namely CrioPurA  regards the realization of NMG-based hydrogels, produced by cryo-polymerization in water. The synthesis of ad-hoc functionalized polymeric materials with chelating groups is a sustainable and low-cost strategy to obtain adsorbent materials. In particular, the technique adopted for the realization of  material allows to obtain different structures as well as shapes of different sizes, with high porosity, permeability and excellent sequestering action towards boron, arsenic, chromium and other metals ions from the water. CrioPurA can be regenerated, reused and adapted to existing water treatment plants.

Patent status

SUBMITTED

Priority Number

102019000012339

Priority Date

19/07/2019

License

INTERNATIONAL

Market

The product finds its reference market among the companies that develop technologies and services for water treatment. The market is growing, is quite wide with about 2200 companies distributed throughout Italy and Europe and thousands around the world. Furthermore, the growing attention on wastewater treatment in countries such as the US, China and India but also for rural communities, provides significant opportunities in this market. The current demand as well as the growing global demand for clean water, to new stricter regulations and the growing attention to the environment, determine a strong growth of the aforementioned market and consequent development of new technologies. With this in mind, any legal problems relating to the expiry of the patent can be overcome by constantly innovating the technology to always be the owners. The Italian wastewater treatment market represents our SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market). While we identify the European water treatment market as our SAM (Serviceable Available Market), with over 18,000 wastewater treatment plants and finally, the global one as our TAM (Tam Available Market). Forecasts relating to the global water treatment sector see a remarkable growth, confirmed by a “Compound Annual Growth Rate” (CAGR) of 6.7% from 2020 to 2027, reaching a turnover of 242.6 billion dollars in 2027 (source: meticulous research. com).

Problem

“Water is life”. These words are probably the most powerful and realistic message, but it is often used as a cliché. In fact, water has been an inexhaustible resource for too long, until growing pollution outlined the need to protect current supplies. In particular, toxic heavy metal ions introduced into the environment by existing industrial activities accumulate biologically and cannot be easily decomposed, threatening human health throughout the entire food chain. Among the possible removal strategies, adsorption is considered as one of the most feasible, versatile and low cost methods, relying on the physical and/or chemical interactions between the targeted molecules and the adsorbent substrate. However, water contamination is a complex problem that cannot be solved with a single material. Depending on the characteristics of industrial wastewater, it is necessary to use targeted technologies for the elimination of specific contaminants. For example, for the tanning industry Cr(VI) and dyes are the most relevant species to be treated, while for agriculture pesticides and boron must be eliminated. Our work aims to focus attention directly on these specific needs by offering innovative and sustainable solutions.

Current technologies limits / Solutions

Resins containing NMG as functional group are already present in the market (e.g. Amberlite® IRA743, DIAION™, and DowexXUS 43594.00) for wastewater, industrial and agriculture treatment technologies. For these materials, the sequestration efficiency depends on the quantity of NMG ’’grafted’’ to the polymeric surface (active part) which generally stands at 30% in respect to the inactive part of the material. Thanks to the introduction of  85% of chelating part and the peculiar interconnected porous morphology, it can use much lower quantities of material, obtaining the same chelating yields of current commercial resins. The foregoing constitutes a significant advantage in terms of production costs (use of energy and raw materials) and final disposal of the material, with a related increase in the desired environmental sustainability.

Killer Application

CrioPura finds a perfect collocation as resins for purification of wastewater, to remove As(V) from groundwater, Cr(VI) from water deriving from tanning, dyes, textiles, boron from water deriving from microelectronics industries.  In particular, the superior absorption capacity of arsenic (76.3 mg/g) and chromium (130.9 mg/g) if compared to commercial products (14,7 mg/g (As) e 29,3 mg/g (Cr)), is remarkable.

The first case study will concern the application of technology for the treatment of polluted groundwater.

Technology and our solution

Wastewater treatment, conducted by using absorbing materials, is an effective solution to the water scarcity problem. The removal of contaminants affords clean water, suitable to safely return to the environment. In this context, we are proud to present Criopura, an innovative technology for the wastewater remediation.

Advantages

The main advantages over commercial resins consist in: (i) the presence of about 98% of active chelating part; (ii) the peculiar interconnected macroporous architecture obtained by cryo-synthesis. In particular, the technique adopted for the realization of our material allows to obtain different structures as well as shapes of different sizes, with excellent mechanical properties and high porosity, permeability and sequestering action towards boron, arsenic, chromium and other metals ions from the water.

CrioPurA, containing 98% of NMG active part, is able to complex higher quantities of metal ions than the current commercial resins. Furthermore, its interconnected macroporous nature provides rapid water diffusion pathways, resulting in full access to all available chelating sites, thereby increasing ion sequestration.

Roadmap

After the expiry of the POC of the MISE (MIMIT), which was exploited to achieve a TRL level of 5, the Team came into contact with a private investment fund which decided to arrange financing for the further development of a line of research for the consolidation of the technological maturity of CrioPurA and the scalability of the production process at the pre-industrial level. Currently the work team, which has undergone a clear renewal, given the new professionalism required by the action plan, is committed to validating the scalability and making CrioPurA a completely sustainable product at an environmental level.

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