UBC’s BioProducts Institute has made a groundbreaking discovery in the fight against microplastic pollution. Researchers at the institute have developed a plant-based water filter, known as “bioCap,” that has the ability to capture nearly 99.9% of microplastic particles present in water.
The solution lies in adding tannins, natural plant compounds that create a puckering sensation when biting into an unripe fruit, to a layer of wood dust. This combination forms a filter that effectively traps microplastic particles. While the technology is still in its experimental phase, the researchers believe it can be scaled up affordably and efficiently with the right industrial collaborator.
According to Dr. Orlando Rojas, the institute’s scientific director and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Forest Bioproducts, microplastics pose a significant challenge as they contaminate virtually all tap water and are predicted to disperse over 10 billion tons of mismanaged plastic waste in the environment by 2025.
Many current solutions for microplastic pollution are either costly or difficult to scale up. However, the bioCap filter offers a renewable and biodegradable alternative to plastic filters. It utilizes tannic acids from plants, bark, wood, and leaves, as well as wood sawdust, a widely available and renewable forestry byproduct.
In their research, the UBC team tested the effectiveness of bioCap on various types of plastic particles shed from popular polypropylene tea bags. The results were impressive, with the filter capturing between 95.2% and 99.9% of plastic particles, depending on the plastic type. In mouse models, the process was shown to prevent the accumulation of microplastics in organs.
Dr. Rojas stresses the difficulty of capturing the diverse range of microplastics, which come in different sizes, shapes, and electrical charges. However, the bioCap filter takes advantage of the different molecular interactions around tannic acids, enabling it to effectively remove various types of microplastics.
The development of bioCap was made possible through interdisciplinary collaboration. The UBC method was created in partnership with Dr. Junling Guo from the Center of Biomass Materials and Nanointerfaces at Sichuan University in China. Marina Mehling, a PhD student at UBC’s department of chemical and biological engineering, and Dr. Tianyu Guo, a postdoctoral researcher at the BioProducts Institute, also contributed to the research.
Dr. Rojas expresses excitement over the innovative solution and the collaborative effort made by the BioProducts Institute. He emphasizes the growing threat that microplastics pose to aquatic ecosystems and human health, making sustainable approaches essential in combatting this issue.
The research findings were published in the journal Advanced Materials under the reference “Flowthrough Capture of Microplastics through Polyphenol-Mediated Interfacial Interactions on Wood Sawdust.” The team hopes that their bioCap filter will provide a scalable and sustainable solution to the challenge of microplastic pollution.