Involved Members: Dr. James Kar Hei FANG, Dr. Alessandro STOCCHINO

Microplastics are polymer substances that have a strong ability to adsorb pollutants and can cause considerable damage to the marine environment. As an innovative device, the bubble barrier generates bubble curtains of upward natural flows by using an air pump to push microplastic particles into the catchment devices in the water so as to reduce microplastic pollution. The research team performed velocity measurements and particle tracking visualization in their experiments, where two bubble configurations with three flow conditions and two types of particles were tested. The results indicate that the bubble barrier is effective in blocking microplastic particles, while its system performance is closely related to the combination of the bubble generator configuration and main features of the flow.

Reference:

Zhang, E., Stocchino, A., De Leo, A., Fang, J.K.H. (2022). Performance Assessment of Bubbles Barriers for Microplastic Remediation. Science of the Total Environment, 844, 157027. (impact factor 10.754)