Egg Whites: New Solution to Microplastics in the Oceans, Researchers Say

Researchers believe that egg whites may be the solution to the worldwide problem of microplastics in the oceans.

Egg whites are excellent for increasing muscle development and lowering cholesterol, but they also have benefits outside of the kitchen. According to a team of researchers at Princeton Engineering, this particular breakfast item can be converted into a novel substance that can effectively remove microplastics from the oceans.

Microplastics in the Oceans

Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that come from the breakdown of larger plastics as well as the design of commercial products. They can contaminate food and water, which can lead to several health issues. Additionally, they are everywhere; it is estimated that the oceans contain more than 24 trillion pieces of microplastics.

The Egg Whites Solution

The Princeton team developed an aerogel, which is a lightweight material that is capable of energy storage, thermal insulation, and water filtration. This new type of aerogel was developed using regular, everyday store-bought egg whites. Craig Arnold, Princeton's vice dean of innovation, had the concept for this procedure while he was eating lunch.

Arnold put his team to work by instructing them to combine carbon with various bread recipes to create the aerogel structure he had in mind. Throughout the group's tests, ingredients were gradually eliminated until only the egg whites remained.

Arnold claims that after beginning with a more complicated system, the team simply kept paring it down and adjusting it until they reached its essential components. The structures they required were being created by the proteins in egg whites.

Egg whites are more complex than they appear and can be converted into sheets of graphene, an incredibly thin material that can be converted into graphite, and interconnected strands of carbon fibers.

The proteins in egg whites were freeze-dried by the researchers before being heated to temperatures above 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit in an oxygen-free environment to effect this transformation.

Arnold as well as his co-authors demonstrated the effectiveness of the final material in removing salt and microplastics from seawater in a paper that was published in Materials Today.

The derived egg white material can be produced cheaply, uses little energy, and works very well.

Activated Carbon Option

Although activated carbon is one of the least expensive materials used for water purification, according to Sehmus Ozden, one of the paper's authors, the results of the egg white material are significantly better when compared to those obtained using activated carbon, PhysOrg reports.

According to Lenntech, municipal drinking water, the production of food and beverages, the odor removal industry, and industrial pollution control are just a few of the applications where activated carbon is used to clean up liquids and gases.

Activated carbon is produced using carbonaceous raw materials such as wood, coal, peat, coconuts, and shells.

Any organic material with a high amount of carbon serves as the main raw material for activated carbon.

Adsorption is a method for removing a soluble material from water by utilizing a solid. Active carbon is the solid element in this process. A very large internal surface is the goal when producing activated carbon. Active carbon is excellent for adsorption because of its large internal surface. Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and Powder Activated Carbon (PAC) are the two different types of active carbon (GAC). Most water treatment uses the GAC version.