Abstract
Pollution of the environment by micro-plastics is now a worldwide problem. Plastics are difficult to decompose and put a great load on the marine environment. Especially a plastic with a size of 5 mm or less is defined as micro-plastic and are carried by ocean currents over long distances, causing global pollution. These are not easily decomposed in the natural environment. In this paper, we aimed to experimentally demonstrate that micro-plastics in seawater can be continuously separated by electromagnetic Archimedes force. Using polyethylene particles of 3 mm in diameter as the separation target, a flow channel was fabricated and separation conditions were investigated by particle trajectory calculations for separation experiments. Based on the calculation results, a solenoid-type superconducting magnet was used as a source of magnetic field to conduct separation experiments of micro-plastics in seawater. Although a high separation rate was assumed in the simulation results, the experimental results did not show any significant improvement in the separation rate due to the electromagnetic Archimedes force. It was found that the gas generated by the electrolytic reaction may have inhibited the migration of the particles.