US 12274996 B1Patent grantUnited States

Geopolymer Adsorbent for Multi-Pollutant Water Treatment

Official patent title

Geopolymer composite for water decontamination

Arabic title: مركب جيوبوليمري لإزالة تلوث المياه

Invention

Problem

Traditional geopolymers can have low surface area, limited pore volume, and weak adsorption capacity, which restrict their effectiveness in filtration and contaminant removal. A surface-modified material is needed for capturing chemically diverse water pollutants.

Why it matters

A reusable adsorbent capable of addressing organic compounds and heavy metals could broaden low-cost water-treatment options. Geopolymers are also attractive because of their stability and comparatively accessible aluminosilicate chemistry.

Approach

The disclosed composite combines porous aluminosilicate with a quaternary ammonium surfactant, preferably CTAB, occupying sodium vacancies, and dibenzoylmethane disposed on the surfactant. A preparation method and a contact-separation-elution water-treatment process are also described.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include water-treatment operators, adsorbent manufacturers, environmental-remediation companies, industrial wastewater laboratories, and researchers developing geopolymer-based separation materials.

Potential value

The technology adds surfactant and hydrophobic organic functionality to a porous geopolymer while defining measurable surface-area, pore-volume, and pore-diameter ranges and a route for removing and subsequently eluting multiple contaminant classes.

Background

Geopolymers are stable, relatively inexpensive aluminosilicate materials that can be used in adsorption, filtration, and catalysis. Their broader use as adsorbents is constrained when surface area, pore volume, and affinity for target molecules are insufficient. The cited prior approaches emphasize binders or construction properties and do not provide the same organic surface modification. The patent therefore seeks a porous geopolymer whose sodium-vacancy sites are occupied by a surfactant and whose surface is further modified to interact with water contaminants.

Technology overview

An aluminum solution and a silica solution are reacted to form porous aluminosilicate, which is washed and mixed with a quaternary ammonium surfactant for one to six hours. Dibenzoylmethane solution is added, and the mixture is heated at 80–125 °C to dryness before washing. Claimed composites have 47–60 m²/g surface area, 0.175–0.250 cm³/g pore volume, and 6.75–8.50 nm mean pore diameter. Contaminated water is contacted with the composite, separated, and optionally regenerated with a wash solvent.

Potential applications

Adsorptive removal of dyes and phenolic contaminants from water.
Treatment research for pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and persistent organic pollutants.
Heavy-metal capture from contaminated aqueous streams.
Regenerable geopolymer media for laboratory and industrial water-treatment development.

Evidence-supported advantages

Combines porous aluminosilicate, CTAB-type surfactant, and dibenzoylmethane in one material.
Defines surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter ranges for the composite.
Addresses both organic contaminant classes and heavy metals in the claimed treatment method.
Includes an optional solvent-washing step for contaminant elution and material regeneration.

Development stage

Composite synthesis and XRD, EDX, and BET characterization are described; contaminant-removal use is claimed, while treatment performance in representative real water was not established in the supplied evidence. The development stage was not independently verified.

Commercial opportunity

The composite may interest adsorbent suppliers and water-treatment developers seeking functionalized mineral media. Commercial assessment would require contaminant-specific capacity and selectivity data, regeneration-cycle testing, leachables analysis, scale-up economics, and validation in real wastewater with competing ions and organics under continuous flow conditions.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

B01J20/16Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01D15/20Separation

CPC

B01D15/203Separation
B01J20/3071Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28071Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28059Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/3475Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/16Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01D15/424Separation
C02F1/288Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/3078Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28083Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/281Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2303/16Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/285Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge

Inventors

First inventorEhab Abdelhamed Abdelrahman Ahmed

Keywords

geopolymer
aluminosilicate
CTAB
dibenzoylmethane
water decontamination
adsorption
porous composite
regeneration

Patent document and drawings

The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.