UBC's bioCap Solution Removes up to 99.9% of Microplastics

Scientists at the University of British Columbia’s BioProducts Institute developed a new way of removing microplastics from water. Their method, called bioCap, involves combining tannins, which are natural plant compounds, with wood dust to create a formidable filter.

Still a laboratory set-up at the time of writing, the experiment showed that the tannins-wood dust filter could trap from 95.2 to 99.9 percent of microplastics. This range depends on the plastic type, but Dr. Orlando Rojas, the Institute’s scientific director, said their bioCap solution could virtually remove all microplastic types:

“There are microfibres from clothing, microbeads from cleansers and soaps, and foams and pellets from utensils, containers and packaging. By taking advantage of the different molecular interactions around tannic acids, our bioCap solution was able to remove virtually all of these different microplastic types.”

To develop a sustainable solution to microplastic pollution, the team of UBC scientists collaborated with Dr. Junling Guo, a professor at Sichuan University in China; Marina Mehling, a PhD student at UBC; and Dr. Tianyu Guo, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute.

Read the full article here to learn more about the bioCap solution, the UBC’s new and sustainable filtration method.

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