US 12358814 B1Patent grantUnited States

Porous Adsorbent for Antibiotic Removal

Official patent title

Water decontamination adsorbent and method of making

Arabic title: مادة مازة لإزالة تلوث المياه وطريقة تصنيعها

Invention

Problem

Pharmaceutical contaminants such as chlortetracycline can persist in water, while some treatment sorbents are costly, difficult to manufacture, or insufficiently reusable.

Why it matters

Removing residual antibiotics from water matters for ecosystem protection, exposure reduction, and limiting environmental conditions that can contribute to antimicrobial resistance.

Approach

The method contacts contaminated water with a porous MoO3@Al2O3—MgO nanocomposite, mixes the suspension, and collects a filtrate with fewer contaminants. A sucrose-assisted thermal process produces the oxide adsorbent with defined molybdenum oxide content and surface characteristics.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include industrial and municipal water-treatment developers, pharmaceutical-effluent operators, adsorbent manufacturers, environmental laboratories, and agricultural wastewater programs.

Potential value

The disclosure combines a defined porous trimetal-oxide adsorbent, a specified synthesis route, and a filtration-based treatment workflow aimed at antibiotic removal.

Background

Antibiotics and other pharmaceutical residues enter water through agricultural, domestic, and industrial pathways and may affect ecosystems or promote antimicrobial resistance. Adsorption can offer relatively simple operation and low energy demand, but practical sorbents must balance capacity, selectivity, cost, regeneration, and safe disposal. The publication addresses chlortetracycline removal with a molybdenum-oxide-modified alumina-magnesia material. It reports defined surface and pore characteristics and stated adsorption capacities, while pilot-scale performance, long-term reuse, leaching, and treated-water safety remain unresolved.

Technology overview

Aluminum nitrate, magnesium acetate, molybdenum oxide, and sucrose are mixed with distilled water and nitric acid, heated at about 150–200 °C to carbonize, ground, and calcined at about 700–800 °C for two to four hours. The resulting MoO3@Al2O3—MgO material contains about 1–20 wt.% MoO3 and has at least 50 m2/g surface area. The treatment mixes it with contaminated water and filters the solids; chlortetracycline capacities of at least 90 mg/g are stated.

Potential applications

Adsorptive removal of chlortetracycline from water.
Pharmaceutical-contaminant treatment research.
Polishing of selected industrial or agricultural wastewater streams.
Porous metal-oxide adsorbent development.

Evidence-supported advantages

The adsorbent composition and MoO3 loading range are defined.
Surface area, pore dimensions, and pore volume are specified.
The synthesis uses a direct carbonization and calcination sequence.
The treatment workflow uses mixing followed by filtration.
Chlortetracycline adsorption-capacity thresholds are stated.

Development stage

Laboratory synthesis, materials characterization, and stated chlortetracycline adsorption performance are described; continuous-flow, field, reuse, and independent validation are not established.

Commercial opportunity

The material could be evaluated for pharmaceutical-effluent polishing or modular adsorption systems. Scale-up requires independent capacity and kinetic testing in real water, competitive-ion studies, regeneration cycles, molybdenum and particle leaching assessment, spent-sorbent disposal, continuous-flow trials, cost modeling, and confirmation that the filtrate meets applicable water-quality requirements.

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

B01J20/0218Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
B01J37/084Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/288Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F1/281Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/041Chemical 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
B01J20/2808Chemical 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
B01J20/08Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/283Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/20Chemical 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
B01J20/28057Chemical 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
B01J20/28071Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/725Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/0248Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F2305/08Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
B01J20/3078Chemical or physical processes, e.g. catalysis or colloid chemistry; their relevant apparatus
C02F1/00Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2103/343Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge
C02F2101/30Treatment of water, wastewater, sewage or sludge

Inventors

First inventorBabiker Yagoub Elhadi Abdulkhair

Keywords

water decontamination
adsorption
chlortetracycline
MoO3
alumina
magnesia
nanocomposite
pharmaceutical contaminants

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.