Hospital-based waste treatment for high-value drugs recovery

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A new novel approach for the removal of contrast agents involves utilising a combination of electrochemical techniques and low molecular weight gelators. Low molecular weight gels (LMWGs) are a promising new class of materials for treatment of wastewater. These differ distinctly from polymer hydrogel systems as they do not contain physical chemical bonds between the structures. Within the literature there are reports in the excellent ability of polymer hydrogels to remove a wide and diverse range of pollutants. However, there are fewer reports into LMWGs. The proposed tasks are broken into three sections. The first investigation is to manipulate contrast media to assess their potential to form gels electrochemically. The second is to incorporate pollutants into existing LMWGs. Both approaches will result in the pollutants forming a hydrogel. The formations of the gel/pollutant can easily be removed from the water and due to the nature of these LMWG, it is easily possible to destroy the gel/pollutant formation and then reuse both components. The third section of the electrochemical investigation will be producing a method to reverse the pollutant/gel mixtures (normally by using a simple pH switch). This will result in the removal of pollutants from water and consequently the ability to recover the high value pharmaceutical. Due to the vast number of parameters that can be controlled electrochemically it is also possible to explore the selective removal of different pollutants from wastewaters containing multiple contaminants. This innovative project would provide a novel method of contaminant drug extraction for either proper disposal or recycling.