Different kinds of wood waste can be utilized to produce the water filter. Credit: UBC Forestry/Jillian van der Geest
UBC’s BioProducts Institute establishes a plant-based filter, “bioCap,” that can catch almost 99.9% of microplastic particles in water, using a scalable and sustainable option to microplastic contamination.
Could plants provide an option to the looming risk of microplastic contamination? Scientists at UBC’s BioProducts Institute discovered that if you include tannins– natural plant substances that make your mouth tighten if you bite into an unripe fruit– to a layer of wood dust, you can produce a filter that traps essentially all microplastic particles present in water.
Although the innovation is still in its speculative stage, the scientists think it can be scaled up economically and effectively, provided the best commercial partner.
UBC scientistsDr Tianyu Guo (front) and MarinaMehling Credit: UBC Forestry/Jillian van der Geest
The Challenge of Microplastics
Microplastics are small pieces of plastic that stem from the wear and tear of durable goods and hazardous waste. Keeping them out of water products is a substantial difficulty, statesDr Orlando Rojas, the institute’s clinical director and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Forest Bioproducts.
He kept in mind one research study which discovered that essentially all faucet water is infected by microplastics, and other research study which specifies that more than 10 billion lots of mishandled plastic waste will be distributed in the environment by 2025.
“Most solutions proposed so far are costly or difficult to scale up. We’re proposing a solution that could potentially be scaled down for home use or scaled up for municipal treatment systems. Our filter, unlike plastic filters, does not contribute to further pollution as it uses renewable and biodegradable materials: tannic acids from plants, bark, wood and leaves, and wood sawdust—a forestry byproduct that is both widely available and renewable.”
UBC postdoctoral scientistDr TianyuGuo is holding 2 water samples revealing cured (left) versus neglected water( right). She becomes part of a group that established a wood dust-based filter for eliminating microplastics from water. Credit: UBC Forestry/Jillian van der Geest
Effectiveness Across Plastic Types
In their research study, the group evaluated microparticles shed from widely-used tea bags made from polypropylene. They observed that their method, described “bioCap,” caught in between 95.2 percent and an incredible 99.9 percent of plastic particles in water, depending upon the plastic type. When checked in mouse designs, the procedure was shown to avoid the build-up of microplastics in the organs.
Dr Rojas, a teacher in the departments of wood science, chemical and biological engineering, and chemistry at UBC, stresses that it’s tough to catch all the various type of microplastics in an option, as they are available in various sizes, shapes, and electrical charges.
“There are microfibres from clothing, microbeads from cleansers and soaps, and foams and pellets from utensils, containers, and packaging. By taking advantage of the different molecular interactions around tannic acids, our bioCap solution was able to remove virtually all of these different microplastic types.”
UBC PhD trainee Marina Mehling is holding a container of tannin option, which is utilized to coat the wood dust filter. Credit: UBC Forestry/Jillian van der Geest
Interdisciplinary Collaboration Towards Sustainability
The UBC approach was established in partnership withDr Junling Guo, a teacher at the Center of Biomass Materials and Nanointerfaces at Sichuan University inChina Marina Mehling, a PhD trainee at UBC’s department of chemical and biological engineering, andDr Tianyu Guo, a postdoctoral scientist at the BioProducts Institute, likewise added to the work.
“Microplastics pose a growing threat to aquatic ecosystems and human health, demanding innovative solutions. We’re thrilled that the BioProducts Institute’s multidisciplinary collaboration has brought us closer to a sustainable approach to combat the challenges posed by these plastic particles,” statedDr Rojas.
Reference: “Flowthrough Capture of Microplastics through Polyphenol-Mediated Interfacial Interactions on Wood Sawdust” by Yu Wang, Mengyue Wang, Qin Wang, Taoyang Wang, Zhengming Zhou, Marina Mehling, Tianyu Guo, Hang Zou, Xiao Xiao, Yunxiang He, Xiaoling Wang, Orlando J. Rojas, Junling Guo, 6 June 2023, Advanced Materials
DOI: 10.1002/ adma.202301531
