Hi everybody! Today we are bringing you something a bit different During lockdown, the Cellfie Team decided to enter the BIEA Competition which focused on finding solutions to the plastic pollution problem.
We decided to design an amphibious vehicle, which would use and enzyme to break down the plastic PET in a few weeks. The vehicle would use SONAR technology to detect the plastic using waves to measure its density compared to the surroundings. Our vehicle would be powered by rechargeable lithium batteries which not only last a long time but are a renewable source of fuel.
The main advantages of using an amphibious vehicle to solve the plastic pollution problem is that it allows us to reach areas which are simply too dangerous for humans to get to. For example, mudbanks have been known to have chronic plastic pollution but it is a risky environment to send human collectors and would require large amounts of funding for safety equipment etc. However, amphibious vehicles can be controlled remotely and sent to these high-risk areas to still effectively solve the issue.
Furthermore, amphibious vehicles, one created, would have less long term cost than paying human salaries to collect the plastic. Our proposed vehicle would also remove the issue of how to sustainably dispose of the plastic once it is collected; the enzyme PETase is able to break down the plastic while still in the area of land, mud or water leaving ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid which are harmless to the envrionment and aquatic life.
Unfortunately, due to the lockdown, we were unable to actually carry out experiments to test for the most suitable materials for our vehicle or test how the enzyme reacts with mud. In the future, we would love to look into this.
Luckily, our porject won the competition for our age range! We were thrilled to have this recognition and hope to progress with this project in the future, making a working prototype and joining with industry experts.
Thank you once again for reading and make sure to check out our Instagram and Twitter, both @cellfiemagazine!