Volatile anesthetics – such as sevoflurane, isoflurane or desflurane - are worldwide by far the most used method for the maintenance of anesthesia in humans and animals. While they have beneficial medical properties and are economical in use, all of them have a very significant greenhouse effect and several contribute to the degradation of the ozone layer.
Because of a growing awareness of the environmental impact, several strategies are being explored to reduce the emissions of these gasses.
One promising technological solution is adsorption of these fluorinated ether molecules in biochar. When saturated, the carbon filters can be collected and the anesthetics recovered for reuse.
Limited introduction in clinical practice of this new technology shows promising results, but many limitations of the current design prevent wide implementation.
The only currently available commercial application is contrafluran®, which is installed at each individual anesthesia workstation. This entails that the implementation, correct use, replacement and collection of the canisters must be carried out in the operating room, which in many ways is a major obstacle to optimal use and dramatically complicates logistics and increases costs.
A centralized implementation of carbon filters could facilitate a more efficient approach, allowing a much broader and more effective use, with significant environmental and economic benefits. There remain, however, several uncertainties about the various prerequisites to be met.
The aim of the project is to perform a feasibility study to assess the requirements for implementing this promising technology at hospital level, and secondly to develop a prototype at scale that would meet the identified boundary conditions.