Open Technology programme funding for Valeria Garbin, Lorenzo Botto and Burak Eral
TU Delft researchers, Valeria Garbin, Lorenzo Botto and Burak Eral are awarded Open Technology programme funding to develop new technologies to catch microfiber released from washing machines.
Increasing scientific evidence and public awareness of risks from micro-plastics mean that new technologies are urgently needed to limit micro-plastics release in the aquatic environment.
A large contribution to micro-plastics pollution comes from microfibers released from clothes in our washing machines, which cannot be completely filtered with current methods. The MicroWash project will unravel the fluid mechanical principles of microfiber transport and trapping in filters, and optimize new approaches of active and passive separation of the hardest-to-filter microfibers. MicroWash aims to deliver the next generation of low-cost, high-performance filters for washing machines, to cut microfiber emission at the source.