US 12275655 B1Patent grantUnited States

Metal-Oxide Adsorbent for Antibiotic Removal

Official patent title

Metal oxide-based nanocomposite material for water decontamination

Arabic title: مادة مركبة نانوية قائمة على أكسيد معدني لإزالة تلوث المياه

Invention

Problem

Pharmaceutical residues, particularly antibiotics such as chlortetracycline, can persist in water and contribute to ecological and public-health concerns. Existing adsorbents may be costly, difficult to manufacture, insufficiently sustainable, or poorly reusable.

Why it matters

Efficient adsorption of pharmaceutical contaminants could complement conventional water-treatment processes and help reduce the release of biologically active residues into aquatic environments.

Approach

The disclosure uses a porous MoO3@Al2O3–MgO nanocomposite containing 1–20 wt.% MoO3. Contaminated water is mixed with the material and filtered, while a combustion-assisted synthesis combines aluminum nitrate, magnesium acetate, MoO3, sucrose, nitric acid, heating, grinding, and calcination.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include municipal and industrial water-treatment developers, pharmaceutical-effluent operators, adsorbent suppliers, environmental laboratories, and researchers studying antibiotic removal.

Potential value

The ternary metal-oxide material combines specified MoO3 loading with high surface area, pore volume, and a claimed chlortetracycline adsorption capacity of at least 90 mg/g, with embodiments reaching at least 120 mg/g.

Background

Water can receive pharmaceutical residues from households, health care, agriculture, and livestock operations. Antibiotics are only partly metabolized and may enter sewage and receiving waters, where prolonged exposure can affect organisms and encourage antimicrobial resistance. Membranes, oxidation, precipitation, and biological treatment are useful but may not completely remove these compounds. Adsorption offers comparatively low energy demand and broad contaminant capture, although cost, reuse, and manufacturing remain concerns. The patent develops a porous three-oxide adsorbent directed particularly to chlortetracycline removal.

Technology overview

Aluminum nitrate, magnesium acetate, MoO3, and sucrose are mixed with distilled water and nitric acid. The reaction is heated at 150–200 °C until carbonized, ground, and calcined at 700–800 °C for two to four hours. The resulting composite contains 1–20 wt.% MoO3 and has at least 50 m²/g surface area; preferred embodiments reach at least 100 m²/g, at least 0.425 cm³/g pore volume, and chlortetracycline adsorption capacity of at least 120 mg/g. Water treatment involves contact, mixing, and filtrate collection.

Potential applications

Adsorptive removal of chlortetracycline from water.
Treatment research for pharmaceutical-industry and livestock wastewater.
Polishing of water streams containing antibiotic residues.
Porous metal-oxide adsorbent development for environmental remediation.

Evidence-supported advantages

Combines MoO3, Al2O3, and MgO in one porous nanocomposite.
Claims surface area reaching at least 100 m²/g in preferred embodiments.
Claims chlortetracycline adsorption capacity reaching at least 120 mg/g.
Provides a defined combustion-assisted synthesis and simple contact-filtration treatment sequence.

Development stage

Laboratory synthesis, structural and porosity characterization, and chlortetracycline adsorption studies are described; flow-through operation, regeneration durability, and pilot-scale wastewater validation were not established. The development stage was not independently verified.

Commercial opportunity

The adsorbent may interest pharmaceutical-effluent, agricultural-water, and advanced-treatment companies. Deployment would require testing across pH and competing solutes, regeneration and disposal studies, leaching and toxicity assessment, fixed-bed or flow-through trials, production-cost analysis, and pilot validation with real wastewater over repeated treatment cycles.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

C02F1/28Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/02Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/00Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge

CPC

C02F1/283Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J37/084Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/2808Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/041Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/28057Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/3085Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/08Chemical 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
B01J23/28Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/20Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/0218Chemical 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
B01J20/28007Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/281Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/288Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2101/30Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/3078Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J20/0248Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F2305/08Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2103/343Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/00Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/725Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge

Inventors

First inventorBabiker Yagoub Elhadi Abdulkhair

Keywords

MoO3
Al2O3
MgO
nanocomposite
chlortetracycline
pharmaceutical contaminants
adsorption
water decontamination

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.