Development and evaluation of an air filtration system combining Electrostatic Precipitators for airborne microplastics

Micro plastic particles released into the air as waste pose a significant threat to human beings for a variety of different reasons. Microplastics disperse silently throughout industrial and urban areas, infiltrating the respiratory system and directly serving as a means of spreading toxic waste. In regard to airborne microplastics, research states that those microplastics can be captured through a non-contact process using energy-efficient corona ionization through a novel filtration approach. The microplastics filtration system employs a Van de Graaf genera- tor which generates 200–220 V, allowing for corona ionization of air to a charged mesh screen, leading to collection of particles on a diamond-cut and curved copper collector with ideal field exposure and laminar flow retention. The cylindrical design is reinforced using SolidWorks and CFD, maintaining low pressure drop and high throughput. PLA and PETE tests confirmed the theoretical model’s effectiveness, showcasing a microplastic capture efficiency above 85%. It requires no tools and maintenance, shape-preserving collection morphology, and a modular form factor, which allow it to be integrated into industrial exhausts, indoor environments, and even urban air grids. In contrast to expensive membrane technologies or low-life HEPA filters, this solution is field-deployable, cost-effective, and scalable, targeting one of the most elusive and biologically active pollutants of the modern era. This work expands the use of electrostatic filtration beyond micro-level technologies to a systems-level approach for intervention to pre- serve breathable air at its source. It is not only a machine but a protective shield that redefines clean air in an era of pervasive microplastic pollution.