Guanajuato, Gto., October 3, 2016.- Professor at the Dept. of Civil Engineering of the Div. of Engineering (DI) Campus Guanajuato, obtained the patent of the industrial model "Pulverizing-Sifter table," which is used to obtain PET dust from plastic bottles and use it as adsorbent of contaminants in the water such as heavy metals, colorants and grease, among others.
It is important to mention that adsorption –that must not be confused with absorption—is a process where atoms, ions or molecules are trapped od retained in the surface a material, different from absorption, which is a phenomena of volume. For example, when a soluble contaminant is eliminated of water through the contact of a solid surface (adsorbent).
In an interview, M.A. Ubaldo Morales Álvarez, revealed that the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) granted the title of property to the industrial model of the "pulverizing-sifter table."
He informed that in past days, the Office of Knowledge Transfer (OTC) of the University Center of Liaison with the Environment (VEN) gave them the title of property of the industrial model, for a period of 15 years, to Dr. Francisco Antonio Horta Rangel and himself, for the design and construction of such model.
M.A. Morales Álvarez referred that in addition of this patent, there has been 12 thesis projects of degree from students at the Div. of Engineering and the Div. of Natural and Exact Sciences.
PET dust, he explained, is used as a raw material in different processes of chemical modification –which are also in process of being patented—with the finality to use it as an adsorbent agent. Currently, the research group seeks the possibility to interact with different companies for the exploitation of the registered patents.
It is important to mention that it was with VEN's support and the direction of the Div. of Engineering in charge of Dr. Luis Enrique Mendoza Puga, how the patent was obtained, that permeates in the fulfillment of the goals of the Plan of Institutional Development, as well as the academic production.
