Novel Additives with High Affinity for Phenol

OVERVIEW

The Seeker for this Wazoku Crowd Challenge is looking for novel additives or combinations of additives that would be able to effectively remove phenol from gas systems.

Phenol is highly toxic and can cause pollution, negative effects to the environment and health if ingested, inhaled, or adsorbed through the skin. It is therefore imperative to effectively remove phenol generated during a variety of industrial processes.

Unfortunately, two major current approaches to removing phenol from gas systems, adsorption using activated carbon and absorption using solvents and resins, suffer from multiple limitations, including high cost and limited capacity to remove phenol at lower concentrations.

The Seeker believes that the most promising approach to removing phenol from gas system is through its chemical capturing using additives with high affinity for phenol.

The goal of this Challenge is therefore to identify novel additives or combinations of additives—formulated as gels, pastes, and solids at room temperature— that would be able to effectively remove phenol from gas systems.

This Prize Challenge has a special award structure.

The Challenge requires a written proposal to be submitted and Awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker against the Solution Requirements. The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $20,000 USD for meeting all solution requirements.

To receive an Award, Solvers are required to grant non-exclusive rights to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution. Solvers will retain all rights to any proposal not Awarded.

The Option: Awarded Solvers have a further option to agree to grant the Seeker an exclusive 90-days option to confirm success by carrying out experimental validation to then potentially acquire access to the intellectual property rights in their proposed solution with the commitment by the Seeker to pay either (i) an exclusive license limited to the technology field of the Seeker for a consideration of $15,000 or (ii) the transfer of the ownership for a consideration of $25,000. This one-time payment is in addition to the aforementioned Award stated above.

The Seeker can exercise this option within 90 days subsequent to the notification to Solvers that they have been selected as an awarded Solver(s).

WIN Scouts are very much invited to participate, this being any Solver who can propose a potentially suitable partner (startup or expert) from your network. As a WIN Scout, by referring a relevant partner you will be recognized with a share of a separate $500 recognition award if your referral meets certain minimum criteria of detail, relevance, and format.

The input required is guided during the submission process for WIN Scouts below.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on October 15th, 2024.

- Login or register your interest to start solving and scouting!

Find out more about participation in Wazoku Crowd Challenges.

THE CHALLENGE

Background

Phenols are a broad range of compounds that share a common structural feature: a hydroxyl group (-OH) attached to an aromatic ring. In addition to phenol itself (C₆H₅OH), this group includes cresols, catechols, and hydroquinone, to name just a few of the most common compounds.

Phenol is highly toxic: when adsorbed through the skin, ingested, or inhales, it can cause severe burns, respiratory problems, and even death. It is therefore imperative to effectively remove phenol from liquid and gas systems.

This Challenge is focused on removing phenol from gas systems.

Phenol can enter gas systems predominantly through two sources:

• Industrial processes: Industries like coke production, petrochemical refining, and chemical manufacturing release phenol-containing compounds into the atmosphere.
• Waste incineration: Burning waste that contains phenol or phenol-based products can generate phenol-containing gases.

Two major approaches are routinely used to remove phenol from gas systems: adsorption using activated carbon and absorption using solvents (alkaline solutions, amines, and organic solvents, such as alcohols) and resins.

Unfortunately, both approaches have serious limitations. For example, activated carbon can rapidly become saturated, requiring frequent replacement; it’s also less effective for low phenol concentrations. In their turn, solvents can be costly and create secondary waste problems and resins have limited absorption capacity and are susceptible to fouling.

The Seeker therefore believes that the most promising approach to removing phenol from gas system is through chemical capturing using additives with high affinity for phenol.

The Challenge

This Challenge is looking for novel additives or combinations of additives that would be able to effectively remove phenol from gas systems. The Seeker anticipates that such additives—formulated as liquids, gels, or pastes at room temperature—could be used for phenol filtration, capturing, or scavenging.

We’re very open to additives that come from known applications in a wide variety of industries, including food and agriculture, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics.

We expect that the proposed additives will be applicable to a wide range of gas systems with the concentration of phenol ranging between 0.3% and 0.6%. We further expect that the proposed additives—formulated as liquids, gels, or pastes and applied directly to a solid substrate —will be able to reduce the phenol concentration in a gas system at least 7-fold and, ideally, more.

It would also be highly desirable if the proposed additives had high affinity not only for phenol, but other compounds belonging to the phenol group. For example, compounds with high affinity to ortho-, meta-, and para-cresols will be of particular interest.  

Finally, although we’re willing to consider a broad range of additives with the desired properties, our strong preference will be for the compounds that are low-crystallinity solid or semisolid and would become liquid at a temperature above 120^oC.

We’re fully aware that the following compounds have been described to bind for phenol: polyalkylene oxides and derivatives and ester-based plasticizers (such as Triacetin, TriEthyl Citrate and PEGs, PPGs and analogous). However, we need a superior phenol absorption capability for our application; consequently, we’re not interested in solutions based on these compounds.

Important! We’re not interested in proposals that simply name additives without providing an extensive, experimentally proven, justification. We expect proposals to be based on published articles, patents, and industry information—and the Solvers are requested to provide all necessary references and/or links.

SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS

We’re open to any innovative solution for as long as this solution meets the following Solution Requirements:

1. The proposed additive or combination of additives should be able to ensure an 80-90% reduction of the phenol amount in gas systems.
2. The proposed additive or combination of additives should be applicable to a wide range of gas systems.
3. The proposed additive or combination of additives should be active when applied as liquid, gel, and paste product to a solid substrate at room temperature.
4. The amount of the proposed additive or combination of additives should not exceed 20% of the weight of the substrate to achieve >80% reduction of the phenol amount.
5. Ideally, the proposed additive or combination of additives will have high affinity not only for phenol, but other compounds belonging to the phenol group, in particular to ortho-, meta-, and para-cresols.
6. Ideally, the proposed additive or combination of additives will be the compounds that are low-crystallinity solid or semisolid and would become liquid at a temperature above 120oC.
7. Ideally the proposed additive should not be a polymer (as per REACH regulation definition of polymer). However, polymeric additives will be considered if they show an extremely high performance at phenol removal.
8. The proposed additive or combination of additives must be completely safe for humans.
9. The proposed additive or combination of additives should be amenable to manufacturing at large scale with only minimal development efforts.
10. Ideally, the cost of the proposed additive should be less than $50 per kg.

At the same time, we want to reiterate that we’re not going to accept solutions that:

• Are not applicable to gas systems.
• Are based on polyalkylene oxides and their derivatives and ester-based plasticizers (such as Triacetin, TriEthyl Citrate and PEGs).
• Provide no experimentally supported justification for the proposed additive or combination of additives.

Solutions with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) of 4 and above are invited.

This Prize Challenge has the following features:

1. Your IP Rights are protected; the Seeker must award you to obtain them. Solvers retain all rights to any proposal not awarded.

2. The best solution has the opportunity to win the award of $20,000 USD for meeting all solution requirements, as solely determined by the Seeker.

3. This Prize Challenge requires a written proposal to be submitted and awards will be contingent upon the theoretical evaluation of the proposal by the Seeker against the Solution Requirements.

4. To receive an award for this Prize Challenge, Solvers are required to grant free, non-exclusive access to the Intellectual Property (IP) in their proposed solution.

5. The Solver shall specify in their submission whether the Solver wants to participate in “The Option” for an additional potential consideration, or not.

6. WIN Scouts are invited to participate, this being any Solver who can propose a potentially suitable partner  from your network. As a WIN Scout, by referring a relevant partner you will be recognized with a share of a separate $500 recognition award if your referral meets certain minimum criteria of detail, relevance, and format. The input required is guided during the submission process for WIN Scouts below.

7. The Seeker may wish to partner with the Solver at the conclusion of the Challenge. Please indicate your interest in partnering.

YOUR SUBMISSION

Please login and register your interest, to complete the submission form.

The submitted proposals must be written in English and can include:

1. Participation type – you will first be asked to inform us how you are participating in this challenge, as a Solver (Individual), Solver (Organization) or WIN Scout (submission uses an alternative form).
2. Option Participation – please confirm if you are willing to participate in the further exclusive IP rights option for an additional potential award consideration.
3. Solution Level - the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your solution.
4. Partnering - there may be an opportunity to partner at the conclusion of this Challenge. Please indicate if partnering is of interest to you
5. Problem & Opportunity - highlight the innovation in your approach to the Problem, its point of difference, and the specific advantages/benefits this brings (up to 500 words).
6. Solution Overview - detail the features of your solution and how they address the SOLUTION REQUIREMENTS (500 words, there is space to add more in the summary field, and attach supporting data, diagrams, etc.).
7. Solution Feasibility – Supporting Information and Rationale; your extensive, experimentally proven, justification with all necessary references and/or links, that will help the Seeker evaluate and validate the feasibility of the solution (up to 500 words).
8. Experience - Expertise, use cases and skills you or your organization have in relation to your proposed solution (up to 500 words).
9. Solution Risks - any risks you see with your solution and how you would plan for this (up to 500 words).
10. Timeline, capability, and costs - describe what you think is required to deliver the solution, estimated time and cost (up to 500 words).
11. Online References - provide links to any publications, articles or press releases of relevance (up to 500 words).

Wazoku encourages the use by Solvers of AI approaches to help develop their submissions, though any produced solely with generative AI are not of interest.

Find out more about participation in Wazoku Crowd Challenges.

Submissions to this Challenge must be received by 11:59 PM (US Eastern Time) on October 15th 2024.

Late submissions will not be considered.

Your submission will be evaluated by the evaluation team first reviewing the information and content you have submitted at the submission form, with attachments used as additional context to your form submission. Submissions relying solely on attachments will receive less attention from the evaluation team.

After the Challenge submission due date, the Seeker will complete the review process and make a decision with regards to the winning solution(s) according to the timeline in the Challenge header. All Solvers who submit a proposal will be notified about the status of their submissions.