Revolutionizing Microplastic Pollution Solutions

In this exclusive interview, co-founder and CTO of PolyGone Systems, Nathanial Banks, discusses the groundbreaking technology behind the biomimetic Artificial Root microplastic collection device. The technology is poised to tackle microplastics in water bodies, including oceans and rivers, with its unique design, exceptional efficacy, and potential to transform the landscape of environmental monitoring. Nathanial Banks speaks about Artificial Root's inception as a joint thesis project to real-world applications and partnerships, as well as the PolyGone Systems' journey in revolutionizing microplastic pollution solutions.

Can you tell us briefly about your role and the history behind PolyGone Systems?

As the co-founder and CTO of PolyGone Systems, I oversee the technology development, prototyping, and pilot project executions. I am working closely with a team of chemical and mechanical engineers to optimize our filter design, fabricate supporting systems of the filter, and conduct sample analysis to test its effectiveness.

PolyGone systems began as part of our (Yidian Liu & Nathaniel Banks’) joint thesis research at Princeton University. Our research focused on analyzing aquatic pollutants and waste infrastructure, during which we discovered that while large plastic items and pollutants were being collected and recycled from waterways, there were no systems in place to capture or recycle the trillions of microplastics entering our oceans and drinking water each year. This concerned us, so we decided to address it. The IP we developed during the thesis project later became the foundation for our business.

Can you talk about the extent of plastic pollution in our oceans and its harmful effects?

In 2010 alone, between 4-12 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the world’s oceans, according to an article in  Science .

Rivers play a significant role in transporting this plastic to the ocean, with over 1,000 rivers accounting for 80% of annual ocean emissions. When macroplastic debris enters a river, they degrade into smaller microplastic fragments, as small as 5 mm in diameter. Microplastics are rapidly becoming a global concern, as they can easily be ingested, introducing potentially hazardous and carcinogenic additives into the diets of wildlife and humans. Due to their small size, they are incredibly difficult to capture from water bodies without significantly disrupting aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, once in aquatic ecosystems, microplastics tend to remain and accumulate, resulting in a growing pervasiveness and steady increase in microplastic concentrations across the world’s rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Notably, microplastics have been identified in approximately 92% of US tap water, salt, beer, and human blood, with the average person potentially ingesting approximately a credit card’s worth of plastic each week. This creates a critical need for new infrastructure to remove these harmful contaminants from our waterways.

Why do plastics become hard to detect in the ocean?

Microplastics are plastic materials that are smaller than 5 mm in diameter. Primary microplastics typically enter the environment directly by using plastic products in a household.

Secondary microplastics form from the breakdown of larger plastic items, such as disposable plastic cups and utensils, into microplastic fragments due to weathering, abrasion, and UV degradation.

Since both types of microplastics are highly durable and not biodegradable, they can persist in aquatic environments for potentially hundreds of years. Under UV exposure, plastic particles continue to break into smaller pieces of nanoplastics, making them a particularly challenging pollutant to effectively monitor and manage.

As the plastics keep breaking down, the microplastics' scale, shape, and color make many invisible to the naked eye.

Microplastics are generally inert and do not intrinsically react to the magnetic and chemical treatment processes used in wastewater treatment facilities, making them challenging to sequester without using fine and heavy-duty membrane filters. Many water channels, including open channels in rural areas or with urban runoff during stormwater surges, do not go through the water treatment process.

Can you tell us about your biomimetic filtration system, the Artificial Root, and how it works?

Our biomimetic ‘Artificial Root’ filter is modeled on the fibrous structure of aquatic plant roots that passively adhere and collect small sediments from water without using electricity.

Due to its fibrous structure and hydrophobic quality, the filter physically entraps small aquatic sediments from flowing water, including microplastics.

The artificial root filter is designed to minimally disrupt aquatic ecosystems by its unique position in the water column.

SOURCE

Taxonomy

• Plastic Pollution