CycloLab has been participating in projects developing environmental technologies.

Being biodegradable, CDs do not pollute the environment. Their biodegradation depends on the degree of substitution (the more the substituents on the CD ring, the slower is the biodegradation).

Some examples on the potential of CDs in environmental technologies (most of them but not all have been developed by CycloLab):

Gases

• Sorption of organic solvent vapor from waste gases of chemical industry by CD solution and CD polymers,
• Sorption of radioactive iodine from the waste gases of nuclear power plants by CD solutions or CD polymers.

Wastewater

• Sorption of toxic compounds by CD polymers, or other CD-containing filters (sweet pollution solution),
• Improved biodegradation of xenobiotics by activated sludge (improved bioavailability of the contaminants, reduced toxicity),
• CD polymers as biofilm carriers in fluidized bed bioreactors.

Contaminated soils

• Removal of organic and inorganic pollutants by soil washing ("sugar flushing") with aqueous solutions of CD derivatives (HPBCD, CMBCD),
• CD-assisted in situ oxidation (catalytic effect),
• CD-assisted electrokinetic remediation (improved mobility),
• CD-assisted bioremediation (reduced Kow, improved bioavailability of the contaminants, enhanced biomass production, reduced toxicity),
• CD-assisted phytoremediation,
• CDs for assessment of bacterial degradability of PAHs and other pollutants in soils (HPBCD extraction).

Reduction of emission of wastes

• Dose reduction of agrochemicals (insecticides, pesticides, fungicides) by complexation,
• CD-containing, biodegradable plastics.

Agrichemical industry >>