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

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，并且在已经发生释放的情况下，应采用补救方法来隔离有害物质并确保该区域的安全。针对工业中使用和产生的剧毒物质，ThioTech是一家新成立的大学衍生公司，开发了一系列有前景的含硫吸附剂，可应用于采矿、石油天然气、垃圾处理和电力行业。由于硫含量高、比表面积高（每克材料的表面积超过两千平方米）以及特殊的化学键，ThioTech材料对汞、金等重金属和贵金属具有很高的亲和力。 首先，汞污染是全球紧迫的健康问题。 128个国家签署了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，并且需要更有效的材料来吸附汞。其次，金、铂和钯等贵金属的开采使用化学品溶解矿石中的金属，并将它们以水溶液形式泵回地表。然后金被捕获到活性炭（多孔木炭）等吸附材料上。汞和氰化物是金矿开采行业中最常见的浸金剂，因此需要一种无毒且环保的浸金剂。问题是没有可行的吸附剂材料可以从更安全的替代金浸出剂中回收金。因此，受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。通过英国创新局支持的大学研究商业化创新（ICURe）计划对ThioTech材料潜力进行了市场研究，并显示出建立分拆公司的高度可行性。下一阶段，ThioTech 将专注于材料规模化开发和初步商业化。新公司将总部设在利物浦，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吸附剂具有作为英国工业进口替代的潜力，并允许出口到海外市场，从而刺激上下游产业的经济增长。因此，从经济和公共卫生两个角度来看，创新英国的这种支持对纳税人来说是物有所值的。

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.