Submitting Campus

Daytona Beach

Student Status

Undergraduate

Class

Undergraduate Student Works

Advisor Name

Lisa Davids

Abstract/Description

The primary intent of this research was to investigate and develop a method to extract microplastics from anhydrous beach sediment. Microplastic is found abundantly in coastal sea environments, including aqueous bottom sediment, and beach sediment (Sagawa, Kawaai, & Hinata, 2018). The scope of the microplastic extraction method in this case is limited to strictly the anhydrous beach sediment. The Venturi Effect and Burnoulli’s Principle have been utilized in the design of a nozzle with airflow that has been injected with a sediment and microplastic heterogenous mixture. A nozzle was designed to operate at the specific terminal velocity of sediment such that the sediment is separated from the microplastic. The concept of this nozzle has been proven successful through iterative testing of the nozzle through a variety of microplastic particle sizes and number of microplastics. The success margin of this concept was theorized as a 60.00% extraction rate and the experimental extraction rate was 80.55% on average for different particle sizes and 95.00% on average for different amounts of microplastics inserted. These extraction rates all fall above the previously noted 60% minimum extraction rate, thus proving this method of microplastic extraction to be successful.

Document Type

Undergraduate Research

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