A Leipzig start-up wants to use microbubbles to filter microplastics out of water before they flow into the sea via rivers - which carry 80% of microplastics to the oceans. What can the new technology do?
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00:00 The world has a problem. Tiny plastic particles are suspended in waters everywhere.
00:06 They're harmful to both nature and humans.
00:09 But a solution has recently been found.
00:12 Tiny bubbles can force the microplastics to the surface, where they can easily be discarded.
00:17 Is it really that simple? How soon can this be implemented?
00:21 Roland Daman came up with the idea.
00:24 He's an engineer, an entrepreneur and a successful visionary.
00:28 Perhaps.
00:30 Cleaning wastewater with microbubbles isn't new.
00:36 I once learned at a lecture in London that microplastics are hydrophobic.
00:40 They don't like water and will adhere to air bubbles in the water.
00:45 Years later, as the idea matured, I was watching my vacuum cleaner robot move throughout my study
00:54 when I thought of a way to create an adherence technology for the water
00:58 that would autonomously float freely in the water while cleaning it.
01:02 Small beginnings in the lab.
01:07 The challenge was to create bubbles thinner than a hair,
01:11 so that as many plastic particles as possible would adhere to them.
01:15 Then the project grew.
01:19 The first prototype was called Duck One, which worked on a pond.
01:24 It was the first success for Daman's team.
01:27 This is how the technology works underwater.
01:31 Bubbles escape at a depth of 2 meters, 2 million per liter.
01:36 Plastic and water repel each other, similar to oil and water.
01:40 It's different with air, which does tend to attract the plastic particles.
01:46 That's why they adhere to the bubbles.
01:49 They literally stick to them and thus migrate to the surface.
01:55 The adherence technology can be used wherever microplastic hotspots arise or are found.
02:03 We've already been able to remove 98% of microplastic components from water in the Weser River
02:09 in preliminary model tests without leaving any residue.
02:13 And we did it without chemicals, just with pure micro bubble technology, just with air.
02:20 Exclusive images of the first large-scale plant, on land, but using the same technology.
02:28 The bubbles do a lot, but much energy is required.
02:32 Another problem is that even the tiniest organisms, such as plankton,
02:37 could reach the surface with the bubbles and likely be removed as a food source from the water.
02:42 That's why the innovation must be used selectively, where a lot of microplastic accumulates,
02:48 ideally in heavily polluted rivers such as in Asia,
02:52 before the plastic reaches the oceans and spreads from there.
02:56 We still have plenty of challenges ahead of us,
03:00 especially finding the microplastics in their respective bodies of water.
03:04 That's really hard.
03:06 Right now, we can remove the needle from the haystack, but we still have to find all of the haystacks.
03:12 The technology should be marketable in 2026.
03:19 To ensure the money does not run out by then, the German government has taken over the financing.
03:24 (upbeat music)