WHAT ORGANISMS/NATURAL SYSTEMS DID YOU LEARN FROM AND HOW DID WHAT YOU LEARNED INFORM YOUR DESIGN?

Our product has been inspired by filter feeders, which feed on plankton. These organisms are able to select plankton based on size, which coincidentally is similar to that of microplastics. Secondly, as we aimed to use low energy processes, we believe that a stationary filter feeder, using passive filtration that is generated by active water flow, would be the way to go. Next, we copied the wing nano-pore structure found in the Clanger Cicada fly to prevent the valves and pores in our filter from clogging. Fourth, we focused on tunicatas as a model filter, especially the shape of Salpideae.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM YOU ARE TRYING TO SOLVE AND HOW IS IT RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE?

The problem we are trying to solve is microplastic pollution in the oceans. This pollution is one of the causes that make our oceans less resillient to climate change. We strive for cleaner oceans to conserve marine biodiversity and indirectly our food security.

WHAT DOES YOUR DESIGN DO? HOW DOES IT ADDRESS THE PROBLEM OR OPPORTUNITY YOU SELECTED

Oceanly is designed by five students from the Bio-Inspired Innovation master’s program at the University of Utrecht. We aimed to find a bio-inspired solution for the excess of plastic in the oceans that is a terrible threat for all organisms. Once in the ocean, plastic breaks down into tiny pieces, called microplastics, that can barely be seen with the naked eye. Due to global ocean currents, the microplastics are widely spread throughout our oceans. Inconveniently, microplastic size (0.5 nm < microplastics < 0.5 cm) is equal to that of plankton and since marine organisms cannot differentiate between the two, a lot of the microplastic particles are ingested by wildlife. Consequently, micro-plastics enter the trophic network and are taken up by every organism in the food chain. So far, there exists no efficient way to remove them from the ocean yet. To tackle the problem we designed a microplastic filter. Its design has been inspired by a planktonic tunicate, the Salpidae (Tuniceae’s family), who’s form and feeding technique are optimized for filtering plankton based on their size. Moreover, different species of filter feeders have been considered as well. Last, the one directional inflow of microplastics into the filter is regulated by valves that are inspired by the human’s anti-reflux blood valves to prevent particles from moving out again.  We believe that the construction should be anchored to offshore gas and oil platform installations to make use of the ocean currents that move underneath. This idea was inspired by  stationary filter feeders such as barnacles mussels, who position themselves in similar water currents in order to be able to capture more food. Our goal is to install Oceanly filters on offshore platforms across the North Sea. Many of these stations have been defunctionalized and can get a more sustainable second life.

TEAM MEMBERS

Charlotte Knegt, Andrea Snoek, Nina Soetens, Vadim Steveniers, Fleur Kleijburg