SBIR Phase I: Developing the First Flow-Through Sensor for Real Time Microplastics Measurements

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the increased ability to gain knowledge about microplastic concentrations in bodies of water rapidly, easily, and relatively cheaply through the first real-time sensor. Microplastics are a worldwide pollution problem that have devastating impacts on ecosystem services, human health, and fishery economics.

Interest in microplastics is surging, with many academics, nonprofits, and government agencies all beginning microplastic research and monitoring programs. However, the limiting factor in studying and monitoring microplastics is that all current methods for collecting and analyzing them are extremely time-consuming. There are many current knowledge gaps about microplastic abundance due to bottlenecks in analyzing samples.

This technology, in creating the first real-time flow-through sensor to analyze microplastic concentration, would begin to close those gaps. The benefits to the customer of this sensor include reduced labor costs, and reproducible and accurate data. These benefits may inform remediation strategies and policy decisions that could lead to a subsequent reduction of microplastics globally.

Reducing microplastics in the environment can have ecological and human health benefits for the American people.

This project aims to build the first flow-through, real-time sensor for microplastics. The technology could reduce the sampling time of microplastic abundances by measuring ultrasonic frequencies. Using very large bandwidth ultrasound energy, the sensor will record different resonant and scattering responses of the suspended plastic particles based on size, shape, and material properties which will vary by plastic composition and weathering state.

All of these factors will inform scientists about the concentration and composition of the sample. This technology is differentiated from current measurement methods of microplastic concentration by its novel combination of ultrasound technologies that have already been proven in both the medical and non-destructive inspection communities for in-liquid microparticle classification.

This project will allow microplastics measurements to be taken quickly and easily for the first time, allowing for a rapid expansion of microplastics measurements, not only in America’s oceans, lakes, and streams, but also in wastewater and drinking water treatment plants, desalination plants, agriculture irrigation lines, and factory runoff streams.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.