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Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)
- s_dev 6y agoSeems like a clever solution but not sure how scalable it is for cleaning the ocean. Cleaning the water would require pumping it which has to be super expensive. Maybe a such a filter at the end of residential waste pipes might be an appropriate application.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoIt wouldn't work at scale in the oceans; I don't think it discriminates between microplastics and microorganisms. It'd work on a smaller scale though, but then it would have to compete with traditional filters.
- konschubert 6y agoOr just a coarse metal catcher in front of the estuaries of the most polluted rivers https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluti...
- DanBC 6y agoThey mean to say "90% of the plastic in the ocean that comes from rivers comes from just 10 rivers". https://factcheck.afp.com/widely-cited-study-did-not-show-95-plastic-oceans-comes-just-10-rivers https://factcheck.afp.com/widely-cited-study-did-not-show-95... "It estimated that 88 to 95 percent of the plastic transported by 1,350 large rivers around the world — referred to by scientists as riverine waste — comes from only 10 rivers, all of which are in Asia and Africa. The study does not attempt to compare the plastic waste transported by rivers to the total plastic waste in seas and oceans." There's a bunch of plastic in the ocean that didn't come from rivers - mostly industrial fishing waste.
- dada78641 6y agoThat "once again, Canada is not the problem" line in the viral post is missing the point so, so badly. Like, yeah, lots of industrial waste comes from developing countries where the major production centers are, mostly in Asia. But the people sharing that image should ask themselves where those products go after they're made. A huge amount of that production is for the richer Western countries, and that does make it your responsibility if you live there. This is how industrialized countries lower their CO2 output as well: just outsource it other countries. Under the Paris Agreement, countries are only held responsible for emissions that occur within its borders. It's just another way for the greatest consumers to be able to shrug and say "not our fault".
- shakedown1 6y agoThe application of it is not intended to clean the ocean. As you say, you're supposed to put it in the (washing machine, dishwasher, waste etc.) before it gets to the ocean.
- Ekaros 6y agoWith those there is soap or other such agents involved. I wonder if they will unbind the oils from the ferrous material or prevent the plastics from attaching.
- wernerb 6y agoThis sounds like something that could be applied during pumping already (sewage treatment).
- toyg 6y ago(2019) Or even (2018), since that's when the guy actually came up with it. It was widely reported several times. He's become a regular on the conference circuit since then, but as far as I can see his "great invention" has not actually been deployed in any significant capacity. I'd like it if anybody could shine some light on the outcomes.
- joseluisq 6y agoYep, so a `(2019)` in the title is required.
- vmception 6y agoDid other things with his life My teenage life had similar projects and conferences Got a ride into college and never thought about that again
- soneca 6y agoDecided to Google it. He moved on to a new project which is a platform to help other young inventors [0]. He went meta. To be fair, any misalignment between what he has done and how it was presented in the press I blame 100% the press. He did something cool, in line of what’s the Google Science prize is all about (I.e. promoting science research among teenagers, not finding world-changing inventions). The press that went nuts pointing ”this teenager just solved ocean pollution for us!” due to the known incentives that ad-based press have. [0] https://www.southernstar.ie/news/hollywood-celeb-is-funding-fionns-pioneering-project-4218298 https://www.southernstar.ie/news/hollywood-celeb-is-funding-...
- sonium 6y agoTLDR: a non-polar, non-toxic, ferromagnetic agent is added to the contaminated water. Plastic particles then attach to the agent due to their non-polar nature. The ferromagnetic agent with absorbed micro plastics subsequently can be removed by a magnet. The process removes >90% of micro plastics. [Updated for clarity]
- pandemic_region 6y agoWhat is the cost of such agent and is the agent in itself toxic would be my first questions ...
- Xylakant 6y agoIt's vegetable oil mixed with iron oxide (magnetite), so I'd expect indigestion if you consume it in large quantities. Other than that it's probably harmless. I wonder if the agent is reusable or whether you end up with clean water and waste-oil which you need to dispose of.
- dmos62 6y agoHow come a magnet attracts plastic particles?
- dmos62 6y agoTo answer my own question. It's vegetable oil mixed with magnetic powder. It's the oil that attracts plastic, but it's the magnetic powder that let's you collect it with a magnet.
- hyperman1 6y agoAs I understand it, he 'glues' metal to the plastic. The magnet picks up the metal, and the glued-on plastic comes along for the ride. Now anyone with basic chemical knowledge will probably shoot me for abusing the word glued like this, so feel free to correct.
- cfitz 6y agoBrilliant, great work by Ferreira. While working out a scalable solution, this would be a great addition to preexisting sewage infrastructure in the US!
- bb123 6y agoDoes anyone else approach these "teen invents x" or "wiz kid middle schooler discovers y" articles with extreme skepticism? About half the time the invention turns out to be bogus or trivial, and in the other half it comes to light the parents were behind it.
- konjin 6y agoYes, but then again the majority of news is somewhere between lies and not even wrong. The point of news is eyeballs, not truth.
- konschubert 6y agoNo, there exist reasonably good news sources.
- konjin 6y agoYes, a tiny minority. The majority are so bad that they have reduced their consumers ability to read to the point where they can't understand the difference between few and none.
- konschubert 6y agoImmediate red flag.
- patrickaljord 6y agoThe most annoying part is that it usually comes with a patronizing "the youth knows better than the rest of us old fart sinners" message. I'm all for empowering the youth and don't deny their potential to build and create amazing things but these clickbaity articles ain't it.
- vmception 6y agoSo there I was, kayaking in an oil spill
- 6y ago
- OneGuy123 6y agoWe just have to be careful so that "the cure doesn't become deadlier than the disease": in case some magnetic particles are left in it could cause greater issues perhaps than plastic. We can't just assume that "yeah don't worry bro the magnets will surely remove all magnetic particles".
- Xylakant 6y agoThe magnetic particles are iron oxide, it's fairly common in nature. Adding too much of it to water will turn it brown and cause issues, but small quantities shouldn't pose too much of a problem.
- kwhitefoot 6y agoSounds plausible but of course there are lots of details to be worked out including how to recover the magnetite and how much it costs But it's from September 2019. Does anyone know if anything has happened with the idea in the last 18 months.
- iagovar 6y ago> how to recover the magnetite Won't that happen with the same magnet?
- kwhitefoot 6y agoPresumably the magnetite is very finely divided and intimately connected to the material it is removing from the water; to reuse it surely one must detach the magnetic material from the plastic. It is not obvious to me that this is easy to do with high effectiveness. Presumably we do not want finely divided magnetic material to escape into the environment or for it to be included in the recovered plastic.
- joseluisq 6y agoAwesome, I remember have read about this. But how is going the project today?
- noobermin 6y agoGoogling his name brings up his website. Not sure it is being deployed yet. Would be nice to hear from experts in the field if this method has garnered any interest. https://www.fionnferreira.com/about https://www.fionnferreira.com/about
- wideareanetwork 6y agoAh that’s great news the micro plastics in the ocean problem is solved.
- zapdrive 6y agoThere are many methods that remove plastics from water in a petri dish or a glass. Translating those methods to ocean scale is the toughest part.
- wazoox 6y agoThe Ocean Cleanup project started somewhat like this. They made prototypes and extensive testing, and concluded honestly that cleaning the ocean isn't doable, so they turned to cleaning up the source of most oceanic plastic: rivers. Their river cleaning boat is completely different from their initial idea, but it works well. Ideas are cheap; execution is hard...
- whatever_dude 6y agoThis. It seems to me that every few years there's a new "brilliant" idea by an unlikely "inventor" that promises to solve every pollution problem in the ocean forever. But then it becomes clear that the brilliant idea on paper is impossible in practice, on scale, so it never comes down to anything other than wishful CGI. The media around the topic is too focused on heroics, as if this is a puzzle with a nifty solution that only someone thinking outside of the box can come up with. Reality is less elegant.
- nelsonenzo 6y agoIs it impossible? Or is it because our poor millitary couldn't spare $2Bil to execute on these ideas? Or the global military budget by all countries couldn't spare $20bil to execute? I think it's very important to distinguish which things are technically not possible, vs we simply chose that our murder machines are more useful in the short term.
- kippel 6y agoWhen I saw the interceptor it reminded me a lot to this much older project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQbcrzyAeE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQbcrzyAeE
- laumars 6y agoWhile that’s true it’s also important not to discourage youngsters from having ideas. It’s all too common that us older, perhaps more jaded, folk will lecture others with comments like “ideas are cheap” but those ideas come from people with fresh enthusiasm to solve those problems and sometimes that enthusiasm does translate to execution. So while I do agree with your point, we should still be encouraging ideas.