- Title: Eco microbeads producible on industrial scale, say UK scientists
- Date: 4th July 2017
- Summary: BATH, ENGLAND, UK (JUNE 27, 2017) (REUTERS) DR. JANET SCOTT, READER, UNIVERSITY OF BATH, POURING NATURAL MICROBEADS INTO TEST TUBE VARIOUS CLOSE-UPS OF NATURAL MICROBEADS IN TEST TUBE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. JANET SCOTT, READER, UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SAYING: "If you were washing yourself once a day with the microbeads containing formulation to give you that nice smooth glow that you get when you use an abrasive formulation, you would be putting something like 80 to 100,000 microbeads down the drain every time you did that, assuming you had a short shower and you didn't use too much product. So we would be replacing all of those with something that would biodegrade. Because of the ways cellulose degrades it should degrade in the waste water treatment plant. It shouldn't even make it into the oceans." DAVIDE MATTIA, PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SHOWING HOW HIS MEMBRANE-BASED MICROBEAD PRODUCTION SYSTEM WORKS VARIOUS OF PRODUCTION SYSTEM CLOSE-UP OF TUBULAR MEMBRANES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVIDE MATTIA, PROFESSOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF BATH, SAYING: "With this project we use a relatively small membrane. This is about one centimetre in diameter, roughly 10 centimetres of active area. This membrane itself contains millions of pores, meaning we're making millions of droplets, millions of microbeads. But this is too small for an industrial scale process and there are two ways to make more beads. One: use a bigger membrane, so this is double the length, so you're making double the amount of product. Or you can also have more than one membrane and that's called numbering up. The more membranes you have the more products you have." VARIOUS OF DAVID PALMER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOR MICROPORE TECHNOLOGIES, HOLDING STAINLESS STEEL MEMBRANE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID PALMER, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER FOR MICROPORE TECHNOLOGIES, SAYING: "The other advantage of this technology is the range of particle sizes that you can make. So from a five micron pore membrane, for example, we can generate in the region of 15 micron droplets. We can go up to hundreds and hundreds of microns. So each application has a very specific requirement for particle size distribution. Our technology allows us to tailor very well the particle size and particle size distribution, but at industrial meaningful flow rates. So instead of millilitres per hour we're talking litres per hour."
- Embargoed: 18th July 2017 11:04
- Keywords: plastic pollution microbeads ocean pollution waste plastic University of Bath
- Location: BATH, ENGLAND, UK
- City: BATH, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Life Sciences,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA0016OAY89N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Microbeads found in everyday cosmetic products have become increasingly controversial in recent years, with calls by environmentalists for them to be banned.
The tiny pieces of plastic are included in exfoliating skin washes, abrasive cleaners, and even toothpastes. They are most often made from petrochemical plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. Once flushed down the sink or shower the beads bypass water filtration systems, ending up in the sea, in wildlife, and thus through the entire food chain.
Now scientists and engineers at the University of Bath say they have an answer - biodegradable cellulose microbeads made from a sustainable source.
The beads are made from cellulose, the material that forms the strong fibres found in wood and plants.
According to lead researcher, Dr Janet Scott, from the University's Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (CSCT): "If you were washing yourself once a day with traditional microbeads you would be putting between 80 and 100 thousand microbeads down the drain every time. We are replacing those with beads made from cellulose that should degrade in the waste water treatment plant, and not make it into the oceans."
A cellulose solution is forced through miniscule holes in a tubular membrane, creating spherical droplets which are washed away from the membrane using vegetable oil. The beads are collected, set, and separated from the oil before use.
The physical properties of beads can be made harder or softer, or in differing sizes, by changing the cellulose structure.
Davide Mattia, Professor of Chemical Engineering, told Reuters the team has developed a continuous process that could be scaled up for manufacturing.
"We use a small membrane, about one centimetre in diameter, and roughly 10 centimetres of active area. The membrane contains millions of pores, meaning we're making millions of microbeads," he said.
The microbeads are robust enough to remain stable in a bodywash, but can be broken quickly down by organisms at the sewage treatment works or in the environment. By contrast, chemical-based microbeads take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
Researchers believe they could use cellulose from many waste sources, such as the paper industry, making the technology renewable.
So far researchers have only made microbeads on the laboratory scale, but they are teaming up with UK firm Micropore Technologies to scale it up to commercial levels, using stainless steel membranes.
Micropore business development manager David Palmer told Reuters: "From a five micron pore membrane we can generate in the region of 15 micron droplets. We can go up to hundreds and hundreds of microns. Each application has a very specific requirement for particle size distribution. Our technology allows us to tailor particle size and its distribution at industrially meaningful flow rates. Instead of millilitres per hour we're talking litres per hour."
In Bath the research is diversifying into other areas.
"We'll be making microcapsules and micro sponges used in clothes cleaning products to deliver perfumes, for example," said Scott. "Microcapsules are exciting because those can also be used to deliver agrochemicals."
The research was published recently in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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