Member - Captive Systems SRL

Captive Systems has developed MagnetoSponges, a breakthrough technology for water and gas treatment and recovery in order to make the waste process competitive, environmentally sustainable and scalable. This is an innovative technology of based on magnetic micro-sponges (aggregates of nanoparticles) for the removal of fuels, oils, organic compounds, metals and anionic pollutants in water and gas stream air. The introduction of MagnetoSponges for the management of wastewater and processing water of industry will promote an easy way treatment to nullify the environmental impact of processes water, both favoring the reuse of it to achieve a real closed cycle in a plant but also to produce second water for applications in other fields. Due to the magnetic properties of the fluids, a new purification process based on the use of electromagnetic filter will be introduced. Moreover, the possibility to regenerate the micro-sponges recovering the substances captured suggests a treatment with low economic impact both for the possibility to re-use the micro-sponges and to obtain secondary raw materials. The technology lies in magnetic nanoparticles with an amphiphilic nature; therefore able to be dispersed in aqueous solutions while preserving an affinity with lipophilic phases. The nanoparticles are dispersed in water and through lipophilic interactions, they aggregate leading to micro-sponges with an extremely high surface area, formed by individual nanoparticles with diameters between 10 and 50 nm. This joint gives to the technology both the advantages in terms of extremely high surface area of nanomaterial (high efficiency) and in terms of easy removal of micro-material. The capability to control and modify the functional groups of the outer coating makes the micro-sponges customizable to different industries (Oil & Gas, Food Production, and Metallurgy for example)