• IDEA VALIDATION

Oceanic waste collections are collections of marine debris that, because of ocean currents, combine. The
most prominent of these patches are regarded as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" situated between Hawaii
and California, in the northern Pacific region.
Such "patches" are not garbage islands as many people believe, but dense regions of pollution from the
surface of the water to the bottom of the lake, often not even appear in the ocean. Much of this pollution is made up of microplastics which can have some of the most adverse effects on the environment while being barely perceptible.
These garbages patches have devastating effects on marine life and pose significant threats to ocean ecosystems and humanity in extension.
So, we tried to help marine’s by cleaning its home from our sabotage and conserving our world’s waters.

• PROBLEM DEFINITION

Nowadays, plastics become one of the most ubiquitous industrial materials used to manufacture many
applications around us such as the televisions we watch, the clothes we wear, the bottles we drink from, and the toys we play with. Simply, plastics are synthetic or semi-synthetic materials made from natural products: coal, natural gas, cellulose, salt, and crude oil.
In addition, plastics are different in their sizes, ranging from few microns-called microplastics- to such large ones that can be noticed easily by necked eye-called macro plastics. Plastics have become an important issue threat life of many marine species; Recent studies demonstrate that the presence of plastic debris in the
marine environment has reached over 350 million tons.
Our project is mainly made to collect plastic wastes especially microplastics and collect any secondary
garbage that affects marine life.

• VALUE PROPOSITION

Our main goal is to snatch plastic wastes from waters to save marine life and collect secondary trash. Our solution is highly effective and does not cause any damage or leave any pollutant in the water. And our solution is not just depending on extracting plastic wastes but we will exploit it and recycle it in making building blocks or use it in manufacturing fertilizers.

• METODOLOGY

Our solution is basically depending on collecting the microplastic wastes and other trash from the ocean, then the "Micro algae", also known as "Microphytes" is used as a source of sticky substrate and put as layers that cover all sides of the 100 meter-cube copper box except the base, the lower side of the cube, that is connected with the robotic arm, that is existing in deeper distance under the water, and “Activated Carbon” can be used with the “Micro algae”.
The micro algae or the activated carbon will secrete a sticky substance that is going to stick with any
microplastic particle where the lower part will be covered with bands in a vertical sequence so that the secondary trash will get into the cubic box because of pressure during the sinking of the cube in the water and it will remain inside.
After some time, the microplastics will be collected on the sides of the cube and other trash will be inside the cube, then the spectroscope will detect the concentration of the collected microplastics by absorption of light on the cube sides, if the absorbed light is so high so, this means that there are a huge amount of microplastics on the five sides.
Finally, the robotic arm will lift the cube from the water with the wastes collected.

• ANALYSIS

Spectroscopy:

A spectroscope is a device that measures the spectrum of light which analyzed after passing through samples by using the software Spectragryph, typically used in spectroscopic analysis “spectroscopy” to identify materials, to measure the concentration of microplastics in a given sample.

Activated carbon:
Activated carbon can be effective in reducing hundreds of substances, including contaminants and other chemicals. Activated carbon works via a process called adsorption, whereby pollutant molecules in the fluid to be treatedare trapped inside the pore structure of the carbon substrate. Typical particle sizes that can be removed by carbon filters range from 0.5 to 50 micrometers.

Microalgae:

Oxyrrhis marina is a phytoplankton (a type of microalgae) which is chosen to be our solution to get rid of microplastics because it is heterotrophic, hence it obtains nutrients externally by consuming various types of small organisms from its environment like microalgae, bacteria and other particles. When it will ingest microplastics through phagocytosis including aquatic pollutants(microalgeas: Rhodomonasbaltica) attached on their surfaces.

The base of the cube:
The concept of the base is that when something is pressed against it, it would get in with no return.

• FUTURE PLANS

The activated carbon will be recycled through converting it into fly ash, to be used in building materials manufacture.

The dimensions of the cube and arm on large scale must be estimatedin order to be applicable.

The recommended dimension for the cube is 1003 m3, with 222 bands in the base of it divided into 311 lines with a thickness of 22.2 cm.
Recycling the remains of microplastics from the Oxyrrhis marina and the activated carbon in manufacturing some types of fertilizers.

• RECOMMENDATIONS

Changing the constructing material of the cube from copper to steal because it is firmer, heavier and withstand greater pressure, but it is highly cost because of its hard manufacturing process.

Modifying the converting the shape of the cube into a more efficient one like the dodecahedron so that it can collect more garbage, but it will cost more materials.