Research on Capture Performance of an Induction Type Microplastics Recovery Device

Microplastic wastes in ocean can include the harmful chemical material, and the harmful material is concentrated by marine species. The separation and collecting methods of microplastics in ocean are researched in the world. The authors proposed the microplastics recovery device composed of the plates. Besides, the device consists of the tilted inlet/outlet and the horizontal part. In the water flow such as the tidal and ocean currents, the microplastics can be extracted from the main flow due to the vortex flow generated at the inner part of this device. In this research, the effects of the flow velocity and the inlet/outlet tilt angle on the capture performance were investigated experimentally and numerically. In the numerical simulations using the discrete phase model, the tilt angle was changed in a range between 30 degrees and 150 degrees in increments of 15 degrees, and the particle tracks of plastics were derived in steady condition. On the other hand, the capture performances in three cases of tilt angle 45 degrees, 120 degrees and 150 degrees were compared by circulation type water channel tests in which the plastics denser than the water were swept away 30 times every flow velocity. As the result, it seems that the tilt angle of 120 degrees is suitable for the wide range of the flow velocity in river and ocean.