H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2024

MICROPLASTINE · Microplastic removal from water using purposely-designed biodegradable gelatine hydrogels

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-02-01 → 2024-01-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 191 149 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Биоразградими гелове от биополимери се тестват за улавяне на микропластмаси от водите. Това помага за разработването на екологични методи за почистване на околната среда от тези замърсители.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Microplastic removal from water using purposely-designed biodegradable gelatine hydrogels

Hydrogels are porous, soft solids consisting of cross-linked (bio)polymers in water. The high tunability of porosity, surface chemistry and stiffness make hydrogels highly functional advanced materials. Using charged biopolymers in hydrogel creation enables the adsorption of charge molecules such as bioactives and contaminants. Hydrogels made from biopolymers have the additional advantage of being biodegradable, further enhancing their environmental credentials. Hence there is growing interest in the use of hydrogels for the removal of contaminants from soils and water systems. One emerging contaminant are microplastics (MPs), which are increasingly being shown to appear into many environments [1,2] and there are increasing questions about their potential impacts [3,4]. Given the potential of hydrogels to act as contaminant removal structures, the present study sought to understand the factors impacting their design and utilisation as in environment-friendly MP remediation processes. The overall objectives of the project are: 1. Prepare and characterise biodegradable hydrogels. 2. Test the ability of biopolymer hydrogel particles to trap model MPs and the reversibility of the trapping process. 3. If necessary, further tune hydrogel particle formulation and fabrication process to maximise MP adsorption efficiency. 4. Test the process with more realistic weathered MPs. 5. Check that the optimised biopolymer hydrogels are biodegradable. References: [1] Kawecki et al., Sci. Total. Environ. (2020) [2] Leslie et al., Environ. Int. (2022) [3] Shen et al., Chemosphere (2020) [4] Paul-Pont et al., Front. Mar. Sci. (2018)

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

The abundance of microplastics in the environment, and in water in particular, is a growing concern. Kosuth et al. (2018) showed that they were present in 81% of 159 drinking waters sampled across 14 countries. Both European Commission and EU Parliament have on-going investigations to enforce public policies to reduce the amount of microplastics released in the environment. Nestlé, as one of the many extensive users of plastics to protect and safely deliver goods, has been engaged in decreasing the environmental impact of its plastics and in ensuring that microplastics are absent from its products. In addition to policies tackling microplastic release in the environment, solutions are needed to remove those which are already present.MICROPLASTINE aims at designing low-cost reusable biodegradable gelatine hydrogels to remove microplastics from water. Our water remediation process is based on the ability of charged gelatine hydrogels to flocculate oppositely charged microplastic particles, leading to the formation of aggregates that quickly sediment under gravity and can then be separated from water. As the charge of our hydrogels is pH-sensitive, they can be easily recovered by changing the pH.Using static and dynamic scattering techniques, our detailed examination of hydrogel-microplastic association and of the structure of their aggregates will not only allow us to understand the role played by microstructure and surface chemistry, but also to optimise hydrogel structure and properties; thereby creating rapid aggregation processes. The same techniques will also allow us to investigate the aggregation reversibility, and subsequently design hydrogel regeneration and microplastic recovery processes to ensure the full reusability of our biodegradable flocculant. Model microplastic particles with well-defined shape, size, material and charge will be used, before the optimised flocculants are tested on weathered microplastic particles.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

SOCIETE DES PRODUITS NESTLE SA · VEVEYКоординаторШвейцария