Our innovation is the only one that can remove nano sized plastic particles from water Professor Marcus Halik by NASA This so called ferro fluid combines with microplastics in water The method achieved an 87 percent success rate in 1 000 tests The German green tech start up Wasser 3 0 pur sues a different strategy where the contaminat ed water is mixed with non toxic hybrid silica gels Stirring causes the tiny particles to clump togeth er forming a popcorn like entity that floats to the surface where it can be skimmed off for fur ther use Initial research projects are said to have shown very good suitability as an insulation and construction material Biodegradable plastics Substituting the plastics that survive in nature for eternity is another alternative idea US sci entists have developed a plastic material that be comes biodegradable and recyclable within the space of a few months A team at Yale decom posed wood powder a common waste product at lumber mills using a solvent to create a slurry metric tons 13 2 billion short tons of plastic waste will accumulate in the environment by 2050 according to scientists predictions 12 billion of the waste drifting in the oceans is floating on the surface 15 percent of organic polymers and cellulose that was then suitable for casting as a bioplastic Research sci entists at Cambridge on the other hand created a plastic material from plant proteins by adding nanoparticles In this way the structure of the substance can be controlled for creating flexible films a material that looks like spider silk on the molecular level Albeit There s no major sense of suffering and pressure yet to massively combat the microplas tics problem Professor Halik is sorry to say because no limits have been established for mi croplastics in water In view of the steadily grow ing volumes and the inestimable risks to humans if plastic particles enter the bloodstream this can be expected to change in the near future 45 S U S TA I N ABI L I T Y

Vorschau Schaeffler tomorrow 02-2021 EN Seite 45
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