A cross-disciplinary research team from the Kingsman National Institute has announced a significant breakthrough in environmental remediation technology. Faculty from our School of Life Sciences & Biotechnology and the Hellenic Centre for Sustainable Engineering (HCSE) have successfully designed and tested a novel, bio-integrated system capable of both trapping and actively degrading microplastics from the marine environment.
The research, responding directly to the escalating ecological crisis in the Mediterranean, offers one of the first practical methods for not only collecting but also neutralizing this persistent pollutant.
The project is co-led by Dr. Isabella Rosetti, whose research focuses on environmental biotechnology, and Professor Kaarina Rantanen, a leading expert in sustainable materials science. Their innovative solution moves beyond traditional mechanical sieving, which merely collects the plastic waste, creating a secondary disposal problem.
The KNI system is a two-part “matrix” designed for deployment in high-flow areas such as water treatment outflows or commercial marine channels.
The first component, developed by Professor Rantanen’s team at the HCSE, is the physical structure. It is not a plastic net, but a highly porous, sustainable aerogel derived from cellulose. This lightweight material, inspired by natural sea sponges, is structured to maximize surface area, allowing it to passively sequester (trap) microplastic particles down to a microscopic level without harming local fauna.
The true innovation, however, lies in the second component, pioneered by Dr. Rosetti’s lab. The cellulose aerogel is treated as a habitat, or “scaffold,” and is seeded with a non-pathogenic, specifically adapted strain of the bacterium Pseudomonas putida, which Dr. Rosetti’s team has been cultivating for its unique metabolic properties.
This microorganism, which our postgraduate researchers have spent the last two years optimizing, is capable of colonizing the filter and using the trapped plastic polymers as a carbon source, effectively breaking them down into simpler, harmless by-products.
“For years, the challenge with microplastics has been twofold: capture and disposal,” explained Professor Rantanen. “Most filters simply turn a big water problem into a small, highly concentrated solid waste problem. By integrating Dr. Rosetti’s bioremediation work into the very structure of the filter, we are creating an ‘active’ system that neutralizes the threat in situ.”
This research was heavily supported by postgraduate students from the MSc in Biotechnology and the BEng in Sustainable Systems. They were responsible for the crucial laboratory work, testing the system’s efficacy on water samples collected from the Saronic Gulf, and modelling its long-term durability.
Whilst the results are extremely promising, the team remains grounded about the scale of the challenge.
“This is not a silver bullet that will clean the oceans overnight,” noted Dr. Rosetti. “We must be realistic. This is a powerful remediation tool—a technology designed to ‘scrub’ specific, high-pollution discharge points. It is a necessary intervention, but it does not, and cannot, replace the urgent global need for policy change to stop the plastic from entering our waters in the first place.”
The Hellenic Centre for Sustainable Engineering is now moving to the project’s next phase: developing a scalable prototype for pilot testing in partnership with local maritime authorities.
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