By Julia Train
PolyGone Systems, a Princeton University spinout startup, partnered with Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) to implement water filtration technologies that capture microplastic pollutants.
The Microplastic Remediation Pilot Project started in 2021 when co-founders Yidian Liu and Nathaniel Banks were working on their joint architectural thesis at Princeton University.
As part of their studies, they analyzed how the plastic recycling industry and waste infrastructure works, utilizing it to advance the current U.S. waste infrastructure.
Liu and Banks, who were featured in Forbes’ 2024 “30 under 30,” were shocked to see a lack of infrastructure and protocols for removing microplastics from aquatic environments.
The duo’s research ultimately led to the development of new infrastructure to collect and recycle aquatic plastic waste, according to PolyGone’s website.
“We found out that there are already a lot of recycling facilities that can help us recycle the bigger plastics, but the smaller microplastic problem is actually more severe because they’re pervasive,” said Liu, 28. “They’re more interruptive to human tissue, causing a lot more damage to humans and wildlife…It is impacting especially communities with less resources disproportionately. So we do want to create a system that could help remediate this problem.”
Following graduation, Liu and Banks decided to turn the idea into a business and reached out to several waste management infrastructures within New Jersey and its surrounding areas.
Eventually, PolyGone and ACUA partnered together.
Liu and Banks share a background in architecture and Banks, who was a landscape architect, was familiar with utilizing natural solutions to solve any sustainable challenges. So, the pair used that in their work.
“Back then, we were actually looking into plant roots, how the tentacles of the plant root were able to abstract a lot of the smaller particles in water, that includes microplastic,” said Liu. “So taking ideas from the form of the plant root, combined with our focus on waste infrastructure, we came up with the very first system.”
The final product consists of about 720 filters attached to customized frameworks or ‘Plastic Hunter’ hubs deployed in various water bodies to collect samples and monitor microplastic pollution without requiring pumps or electricity.
The filter is called ‘the artificial root,’ because it was modeled to mimic the fibrous structures of aquatic plant roots that trap small aquatic sediments, a technique called biomimicry.
By introducing the filter into the top layer of the water, microplastics that are lighter than water will be on its surface and pushed by the flow into the system to be collected, creating a barrier that will be purified.
“A very important part of this project is [the] partnership with the ACUA team, because they’re very familiar with how they’re existing Wastewater Treatment Plant operates, and they give us a lot of ideas to help us make the system better suited for their use during the site construction phase,” said Liu. “They also very selflessly provide a lot of support in helping the assembly of the equipment and testing of the system.”
The grand opening will take place on Sep. 12, 2024, at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority Wastewater Treatment Facility in Atlantic City. The event will also unveil an Educational Pavilion for visitors to learn about microplastic problems and PolyGone’s environmental mission, according to the ACUA’s website.
Julia is a recent Rider University graduate, where she studied multiplatform journalism and social media strategies. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, trying new coffee shops, photography and the beach. She can be reached at juliatrainmedia@gmail.com or connect with her on Instagram @juliatrain
