ThioTech - sulfur containing materials to capture hazardous waste and precious metals

ThioTech - 用于捕获危险废物和贵金属的含硫材料

• 批准号: 10011884
• 金额: $ 38.08万
• 依托单位: THIOTECH LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Study
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10011884
• 关键词: ThioTech; sulfur; containing; materials; capture

Environmental pollutants are one of the largest risks to human health, therefore, the release of contaminants must be controlled and prevented and, where release has already occurred, remediation methods should be used to isolate the harmful substance and make the area safe. Aimed at the highly toxic substances used and generated in industry, ThioTech, a new university spin out company, has developed a series of promising sulfur containing sorbents, which can be applied in the mining, oil & gas, waste service, and power industries. Because of the high sulfur content, the high specific surface area (over two thousand square metres of surface per gram of material), and special chemical bonds, ThioTech materials have a high affinity for heavy metals and precious metals, such as mercury and gold.First of all, mercury pollution is an urgent global health concern. 128 countries signed a joint agreement to reduce mercury emissions (Minamata Convention), causing tightening restrictions on industry, and a need for more effective materials to adsorb mercury. Secondly, the mining of precious metals such as gold, platinum, and palladium uses chemicals to dissolve the metals in ores and pump them back to the surface as an aqueous solution. The gold is then captured onto adsorbent materials like activated carbon (porous charcoal). Mercury and cyanide are the most common gold leaching reagents in the gold mining industry, therefore, a non-toxic and environmentally friendly gold leaching agent is needed. The problem is there is no viable sorbent material to retrieve gold from the safer alternative gold leaching agents. Therefore, benefiting from the special chemical structure, ThioTech materials are anticipated as a promising approach to solve these two challenges.Market research of the potential of ThioTech materials was investigated through the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme, supported by Innovated UK, and showed high feasibility for establishment of a spin-out company. In the next stage, ThioTech will focus on materials scale-up development and primary commercialisation. The new company will be based in Liverpool, and collaborate with other British companies in technology development, material manufacturing, and validation study. ThioTech sorbent has potential as an import substitution in UK industry and to allow export to overseas markets, consequently, stimulating the economic growth of upstream and downstream industries. Therefore, from both economic and public health aspects, this support from Innovate UK represents the value for money for the taxpayer.

环境污染物是对人类健康的最大风险之一，因此，必须控制和防止污染物的释放，在已经发生释放的地方，应使用补救方法隔离有害物质，使该地区安全。针对工业中使用和产生的剧毒物质，一家新的大学衍生公司ThioTech开发了一系列有前途的含硫吸附剂，可应用于采矿，石油和天然气，废物处理和电力行业。由于硫含量高、比表面积大（每克材料的表面积超过2000平方米）和特殊的化学键，ThioTech材料对重金属和贵金属（如汞和金）具有很高的亲和力。首先，汞污染是一个紧迫的全球健康问题。128个国家签署了一项减少汞排放的联合协议（水俣公约），导致对工业的限制更加严格，需要更有效的材料来吸附汞。其次，开采贵金属，如黄金，铂和钯，使用化学品溶解矿石中的金属，并将其作为水溶液泵回地表。然后将金捕获到吸附材料如活性炭（多孔木炭）上。汞和氰化物是金矿开采中最常用的浸金剂，因此，需要一种无毒、环保的浸金剂。问题是没有可行的吸附剂材料来从更安全的替代金浸出剂中回收金。因此，得益于特殊的化学结构，ThioTech材料有望成为解决这两个挑战的有前途的方法。通过Innovated UK支持的大学研究创新商业化（ICURe）计划，对ThioTech材料的潜力进行了市场研究，并显示了成立分拆公司的高度可行性。在下一阶段，ThioTech将专注于材料的规模化开发和初级商业化。新公司将总部设在利物浦，并与其他英国公司在技术开发、材料制造和验证研究方面进行合作。ThioTech吸附剂有潜力作为英国工业的进口替代品，并允许出口到海外市场，从而刺激上下游行业的经济增长。因此，从经济和公共卫生两个方面来看，英国创新署的这种支持对纳税人来说是物有所值的。