Water has been taken for granted for too long until the increasing pollution delineated the need to protect our provisions. Industrial consumption of water is a major drain on the world’s limited resources.
Every industry, needs thousands of tons of fresh water every day, all around the world, producing wastewater with different contaminants.
Then how can we protect our natural capital? Wastewater treatment, conducted by using absorbing materials, is an effective solution. Removing contaminants affords clean water, suitable for safely returning to the environment. In this context, we are proud to present CrioPurA, an innovative technology for industrial wastewater and groundwater remediation
Mission
Water has been taken for granted for too long until the increasing pollution delineated the need to protect our provisions. Industrial consumption of water is a major drain on the world’s limited resources.
Every industry, needs thousands of tons of fresh water every day, all around the world, producing wastewater with different contaminants.
Then how can we protect our natural capital? Wastewater treatment, conducted by using absorbing materials, is an effective solution. Removing contaminants affords clean water, suitable for safely returning to the environment. In this context, we are proud to present CrioPurA, an innovative technology for industrial wastewater and groundwater remediation
Technology
Macroporous polymeric cryogel based on N-alkyl-D-glucamine to sequester and/or remove toxic contaminants.
N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMG) is a chelating species used for environmental applications thanks to its high chelating efficiency towards metal anions.
The technology presented, called CrioPurA, is a realization of NMG-based hydrogels, produced by cryo-polymerization in water. The synthesis of polymeric materials, functionalized ad hoc with chelating groups, allows low costs and eco-sustainable materials to subsequently obtain adsorbent materials. In particular, the technique adopted for the realization of the material allows to obtain structures and shapes of different sizes, with high porosity, permeability and excellent sequestering action towards boron, arsenic, chromium and other metals.
CrioPura can be regenerated, reused and used selectively for water treatment. The technology finds application as an exchange resin for the removal of inorganic pollutants from water. This allows to find a valid application and integration in the cycle of tertiary wastewater treatments, without additional costs for the implementation of the plant, as a filter for industrial plants (tanning, dyes, textiles, microelectronics), groundwater, in agriculture for boron removal.
In some areas where the presence of As (V) in water for domestic use is significantly higher than the legal limits imposed by the WHO (10 μg/L), the CrioPurA application, considering the exceptional sequestering properties, could be more effective and with lower operating costs than current technologies.
Fundings
- 2020 – Programma Amico CNR
Funded by PoC MISE 80.000 € – TRL increase (1–>4) - 2022 – Eureka! Venture
230.000 € – Consolidation of technological maturity and technology scale-up (TRL 4 –> 7) - 2024 – Terranext
Cariplo Factory – in progress
Awards
- 2021 – Finalisti EIT Jumpstarter – Manufacturing
- 2021 – Finalisti StartCup CT 2021
Team
- Andrea Scamporrino (Researcher | Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB), CNR | PhD in Polymeric Materials for Special Uses, Università degli Studi di Catania)
- Sabrina Carroccio (Researcher | Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials (IPCB), CNR | PhD in Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Catania)
- Francesca Cunsolo (Researcher | Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (ICB), CNR | MSc in Organic Chemistry, Università di Catania and Senior Grant, Yale University)
- Tommaso Mecca (Researcher | Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (ICB), CNR | PhD in Chemistry, Università degli Studi della Basilicata)
