A twenty-year-old chemistry student is designing a magnet to capture microplastics as water flows past it.
Fionn Ferreira realized that “oil could be used to attract plastic.” The student has designed a magnetic liquid that has proven to be 87% effective at removing microplastics from water. Expanding on his initial research, Ferreira is designing a device small enough to fit inside waterpipes to continuously extract plastic fragments as water flows through them. He has also been working on a system compatible with ships so they can extract plastics on the oceans.
