Available Technologies

VALUE PROPOSITION

Removing oil from water is an important process throughout the industrialized world for both water treatment and cleaning up spills. This biochar-based oil filtration system improves on existing biochar filters used for oil and water separation.

DESCRIPTION OF TECHNOLOGY

This invention is an improvement on the biochar used in the oil-water filters. The biochar is functionalized (or activated) using a novel plasma, which creates a hydrophobic surface to which the oil is attracted to. There are two ways to utilize the functionalized biochar. First, a porous material can be coated in the biochar. Flowing an oil-water mixture through the biochar-coated porous material traps the oil inside, and clean water is discharged. Second, the functionalized biochar can be added to the chemical mixture used to make synthetic foams and sponges. The resulting foam is a highly efficient and easily produced filter. These formats can be easily scaled to produce more or larger filters and are much easier to produce than paper-style biochar filters.

BENEFITS

• Inexpensive production
• Improvement on existing technologies
• Easily sourced materials
• Easily scalable

APPLICATIONS

• Production line byproduct filtering
• Wastewater treatment
• Clean up of oil spills

IP STATUS

Patent Pending

LICENSING RIGHTS AVAILABLE

Full licensing rights available

DEVELOPER

Dr. Qi Hua Fan

TECH ID

TEC2021-0029