Development of new adsorbent for selective removal of halogenated anesthetics

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The company involved in this project, Blue-Zone Technologies from Toronto, has developed a process based on proprietary granulated adsorbent Deltazite® for selective removal and recovery of low concentration halogenated anesthetics coming from hospital operating rooms. During operation only a small amount of the administered anesthetic, i.e., less than 5% is metabolized by the patient. The remaining 95% either escapes or is vented through hospital ventilation systems unabated directly into the atmosphere. These vapors are considered aggressive greenhouse gases with the Global Warming Potential (GWP) up to 3,766 times higher than for the CO2 and have a 20 year impact. Since these anesthetics are valuable commodities (costing up to $1,200 per liter) the Deltasorb® adsorbent, with captured anesthetics, is regenerated by thermal desorption and then adsorbates liquefied into halogenated condensate. The liquefied condensate is a mix of all three anesthetics and is used as a feedstock for the next process, e.g., Blue-Zone proprietary fractional distillation process, where each component is isolated, separated and purified to meet or exceed the USP anesthetic drug medical standards.