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Chardynne Joy H. Conclo. Aug 14, 2019, 8:13am EDT
An Irish teen may have discovered a way to save our oceans from microplastics.
Fionn Ferreira is an 18-year old from West Cork, Ireland who was recently awarded 50,000 dollars in educational funding by Google Science Fair for his project that successfully removes microplastics from water.
His process uses "magnetic liquid" called ferrofluid that essentially bonds to the microplastics and allows for extraction by magnets.
Fionn's inspiration came during a leisurely walk along one of his hometown beaches. There he noticed a rock covered in oil, he then noticed small pieces of plastic, no longer than 5mm, attached to the stone.
"I was alarmed to find out how many microplastics enter our water system and consequently the oceans." says Fionn. "This inspired me to try and find out a way to try and remove microplastics from waters before they even reached the sea."
After researching current methods for microplastic removal, Fionn said he found no method that could quickly and efficiently extract the microplastics.
Fionn's drive and determination are clearly evident in the success of this project. Being from a small, remote town he had to build his own equipment. He made lots of prototypes and built his own spectrometer to send light through the water and analyse the results of his method.
Here is a look at the summarized extraction process Fionn explained in his presentation to the Plastic Health Summit in 2019.
• First, I started out with a suspension of microplastics in water .
• I then added vegetable oil and magnetite powder (turning it all into a Ferrofluid) .
• After that I mixed it together, binding the ferrofluid to the plastic particles.
• Finally I used a magnet to remove this from water.
Fionn concludes that the project was a success, he now looks forward to applying the methods on a larger scale and one day making a difference in our oceans.
