Microplastic Collection With Ultra-High Magnetic Field Magnet by Magnetic Separation

Abstract

In recent years, the increase of microplastics (MPs) in ocean have been recognized as one of ocean pollution listed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since MPs absorb harmful chemicals while floating in ocean, small fish which eats the absorbed MPs may fall into bad digestion and poor health condition. To solve the ocean pollution problem, a good MP collection method must be proposed with a high processing speed and a high MP collection ability. While, recently, the performances of 2nd generation high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets which can generate a field higher than 15 T have been improved. It is expected that MP collection performances are enhanced with such high field superconducting magnets. In this paper, we propose a conceptual design for MP collector from seawater using superconducting magnets. To evaluate the performances of the device, we developed a fluid simulation coupled with magnetic field simulation. The simulation results indicate that MPs can effectively be collected with a high magnetic field with a high processing speed.