Medical Grade Polymer CO2 Capture (PolyMedCap)

该项目将被称为PolyMedCap(用于二氧化碳捕获的医用级聚合物)，旨在改善吸入麻醉过程、成本和环境足迹。吸入麻醉在人类和兽医保健环境下进行手术时是常规使用的。众所周知，麻醉气体的成本非常高，因此麻醉师和外科医生使用低流量的麻醉方法进行手术。低流量麻醉是使用连接到循环呼吸系统的麻醉机进行的，该系统允许患者在二氧化碳被清除后重新呼吸呼出的空气，其中含有未代谢的麻醉气体。去除二氧化碳的过程被称为“二氧化碳洗涤”，由洗涤剂(如纯碱-石灰)进行。众所周知，一些洗涤器吸收剂会产生有毒副产品，可能会损害患者和医护人员的健康。在中低收入国家和紧急手术中，低流量麻醉剂的使用受到限制，原因是无法获得不可重复使用的二氧化碳洗涤器、废物储存问题以及麻醉气体的高昂成本，例如七氟醚。PolyMedCap项目旨在减少在传统和低资源医疗单位进行低流量麻醉时制造和使用二氧化碳洗涤器系统的环境足迹。它将使用聚合物二氧化碳洗涤器，提供一种解决方案，在中低收入国家和低资源医疗单位(如在大流行、战争和自然灾害期间设立的外科和医院营地)减少医疗保健二氧化碳足迹，并增加获得吸入麻醉的机会。PolyMedCap项目将研究创新和环保设计，以制造一种单一包装、可重复使用的智能二氧化碳洗涤器，无需洗涤器吸尘器搬走即可就地捕获、存储和回收。二氧化碳洗涤器将被设计为环保的聚合物材料，只捕获二氧化碳。该项目还打算设计一个专用的捕获、储存和释放系统，以实现现场和低能量的二氧化碳洗涤器再生。这将允许在线重复使用洗涤器和高纯度二氧化碳储存，并可能进行医疗或非医疗再利用。总体而言，该项目将提供一种二氧化碳洗涤系统的创新设计，通过将地球置于设计过程的中心并在贫困国家/地区增加接受手术的机会，该系统是可取和有利可图的。

This project to be known as PolyMedCap (Medical Grade Polymer for CO2 Capture) seeks to improve inhalation anaesthesia processes, cost and environmental footprint. Inhalation anaesthesia is routinely used during human and veterinary healthcare settings to perform surgery. The cost of anaesthetic gases is known to be very high consequently the anaesthetists and surgeons use low-flow anaesthesia methods to carry out the procedures. Low-flow anaesthesia is performed using an anaesthetic machine connected to a circle breathing system which allows the patient to rebreathe the expired air, containing unmetabolised anaesthetic gas, after carbon dioxide is removed. The process of removing carbon dioxide is known as "CO2 scrubbing" and is performed by scrubber absorbents, e.g. soda-lime. Some of the scrubber absorbents are known to produce toxic by-products that can potentially harm the health of patients and healthcare professionals.In low to medium-income countries and emergency operations, low-flow anaesthesia usage is limited because of; inaccessibility to non-reusable carbon dioxide scrubbers, waste storage issues and the high cost of anaesthetic gases for example Sevoflurane.The PolyMedCap project aims to reduce the environmental footprint of the manufacturing and use of carbon dioxide scrubber system when performing low-flow anaesthesia in both conventional and low-resourced healthcare units. It will use a polymer CO2 scrubber that provides a solution to lowering healthcare CO2 footprint and increase access to inhalation anaesthesia in low to medium-income countries and in low-resourced healthcare units (such as surgery and hospital camps setup during pandemic, war and natural disaster events).The PolyMedCap project will research innovative and eco-friendly design for manufacturing a single packaged reusable and smart CO2 scrubber that captures, stores and recycles in-situ without having to the scrubber carnister take away. The CO2 scrubber will be designed as eco-friendly polymeric material that captures only carbon dioxide. The project also intends to design a dedicated capture, storage and release system to enable on-site and low-energy CO2 scrubber regeneration. This will allow in-line reuse of the scrubber and high purity carbon dioxide storage with possible medical or non-medical reuse.Overall, the project will deliver an innovative design of a CO2 scrubber system that is desirable and profitable by placing the planet at the centre of the design process and increasing access to surgery in disadvantaged Countries/Areas.