Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#71

Post by kwhitefoot » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 6:03 PM UTC

iagovar wrote: post #36

kwhitefoot wrote: post #14

Sounds 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.

> how to recover the magnetite Won't that happen with the same magnet?

Presumably 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.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#72

Post by kwhitefoot » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

MertsA wrote: post #49

NotPavlovsDog wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. My partner is working on a sub-topic, removing microplastics from laundry discharge water, and it is a huge and still undefined challenge. There is no magic pill. Even core definitions such as "what are microplastics" are under review and development. And then there's nanoplastics. For those wanting an introduction to the topic, don't go with media, start reviewing papers. The top cited papers clearly outline ho…

>removing microplastics from laundry discharge water Much better way of addressing a lot of the microplastics problem IMHO. Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres" and then start requiring washing machine OEMs to put replaceable filters on the discharge.

> Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres"

Already done in the UK and US.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/the-best-face-and-bo...

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#73

Post by NotPavlovsDog » Thu, Mar 11, 2021, 7:37 PM UTC

kwhitefoot wrote: post #72

MertsA wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>removing microplastics from laundry discharge water Much better way of addressing a lot of the microplastics problem IMHO. Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres" and then start requiring washing machine OEMs to put replaceable filters on the discharge.

> Regulate it out of common frivolous sources like e.g. "exfoliating microspheres" Already done in the UK and US. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/the-best-face-and-bo... See also https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12269 https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/mic...

It's far from done, and some would say not done at all, depending on the definition of microplastic. Microplastic in cosmetics is absolutely not even close to solved.

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2020/03/battle-on-t...

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#74

Post by airhead969 » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 3:25 AM UTC

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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.

"Hey, look everyone, a toddler invented commercial fusion power when actual physicists and engineers couldn't!"

It sells ads to eyeballs is all the so-called journalists and editors care about.

Re: Irish teen invents magnetic liquid trap to remove microplastics in water (2019)

#75

Post by airhead969 » Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 3:28 AM UTC

NotPavlovsDog wrote: post #34

bb123 wrote: post #9

Does 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.

Yes. My partner is working on a sub-topic, removing microplastics from laundry discharge water, and it is a huge and still undefined challenge. There is no magic pill. Even core definitions such as "what are microplastics" are under review and development. And then there's nanoplastics. For those wanting an introduction to the topic, don't go with media, start reviewing papers. The top cited papers clearly outline ho…

Laundromat-type commercial/industrial waste or residential laundry water?

I would think products for industrial, commercial, and residential micro plastics removal would be more useful than for a specific problem, but also that waste treatment plants and water runoff must scrub their outputs of environmental contaminants before discharging them into waterways.