Background

Name: Smart Fish
Address: HK

背景

Microplastics contamination in the natural water bodies, which are resulted from disintegration from plastic waste, has raised public concern due to high level of fragmentation and disturbance in ecosystem. The associated problem will significantly affect the sustainability of aquatic animals and human beings.

Tire Wear Road Particles account for a large proportion of microplastics in the environment. Previous studies showed that emission of tire wear particles is nearly 100,000 tons per year in Germany. The friction between the tire and the pavement during driving, speeding up and braking causes particles to be worn out from the car tires. Similar problems may arise from aircraft tires. However, there is not much research focus on real-time detection and removal of aircraft tire wear particles in coastal waters in Hong Kong.

近年來，海洋微塑膠污染的問題逐漸引起公眾的關注。塑膠物料在自然環境下（包括風、海浪沖刷和紫外線等因素）分解成塑膠碎片或更細小的微塑膠粒，這不僅影響海洋生態，也間接影響人類健康。輪胎磨損產生的微塑膠粒在環境中所佔比例很大。例如，過去研究顯示德國每年輪胎磨損產生的微塑膠粒排放量接近10萬噸。車輛在行駛、加速和煞車過程中，輪胎與路面間的摩擦會產生大量微塑膠粒。飛機輪胎也存在同樣問題，由於這方面的研究數據有限，我們希望通過研發智能檢塑魚從而了解這方面海洋污染問題。

Project Objectives

Our project would fill up the information gap by developing a prototype device to provide real-time sampling, detection, and degradation of aircraft tire wear particles (ATWP) in the coastal area of Lantau Island near Hong Kong International Airport. The prototype combines autonomous sampling, real-time detection of microplastics and aircraft tire wear particles with treatment unit to address and mitigate the problem in the region.

The prototype includes the following components:

a sampling unit
a filtration unit
two staining chambers for microplastics and aircraft tire wear particles
a capturing system using digital camera
an user-friendly mobile app to visualize the data
a treatment unit to remove microplastics and aircraft tire wear particles

The operation of the prototype will be controlled by computer programmes. Solar panels will be installed on top of the prototype for sustainable energy production and consumption.