SBIR Phase II: High-Affinity Cyclodextrin Polymers for Point-of-Use Filtration Products

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to provide a solution to the problem of drinking water contamination by developing an advanced adsorbent for point-of-use/home filtration applications. Micropollutants, pharmaceutical residues, pesticides, industrial chemicals and other organic compounds present in water resources at trace concentrations of one part per billion and less, are recognized as a major factor of contamination. Consumers around the world no longer trust the safety of their drinking water due to the presence of micropollutants and other contaminants. These compounds are pervasive and can present toxicity at trace concentrations. As a result, consumers have significantly increased the non-sustainable use of plastic bottled water, now a $260 billion market. Current point-of-use filtration products are primarily designed to improve taste and odor, and are generally ineffective in removing micropollutants. CycloPure's technology has been developed specifically to target and remove micropollutants from water. This project focuses on the further development of the company's cyclodextrin adsorbent to improve the effectiveness of point-of-use filters. This material can be used as a drop-in replacement without changes in filter design. CycloPure's materials will allow households to safely use readily available tap water. This SBIR Phase II project proposes to identify strategies to develop a suitable form factor to incorporate CycloPure's high-affinity cyclodextrin adsorbent into point-of-use filters. The company's adsorbent is formed by reacting cyclodextrins, which are derived from corn starch, with readily available monomers in a single step process. During the Phase I period of this project, scalable reaction conditions were identified for production of the adsorbent in powder form. Flow-through applications, such as gravity filters, frequently require granular particles to achieve desired flow rates. Early activities will focus on the preparation of the adsorbent in granular form to demonstrate scalability and retention of removal performance similar to powder form. Thereafter, column studies will be performed in order to assess the removal performance of granular media under flow-through conditions at environmentally relevant micropollutant concentrations. Following identification of adsorption characteristics and appropriate flow conditions, a prototype point-of-use filter will be constructed and tested for the removal of micropollutants from tap water using advanced analytical techniques, including a combination of target and non-target screening approaches. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.