Descripción del proyecto
Un nuevo filtro para atrapar microplásticos con cada lavado
He aquí un dato para reflexionar el día que toque hacer la colada: el lavado de ropa sintética es la principal fuente de microplásticos primarios en los océanos; incluso una única prenda sintética en la lavadora puede liberar miles de microfibras. El equipo del proyecto financiado con fondos europeos MIMBOX ha ideado una forma de evitar que los microplásticos lleguen a los cursos de agua. Mediante el empleo de una tecnología de filtrado autolimpiante, ha desarrollado el primer dispositivo complementario que se puede conectar a cualquier tipo de lavadora para capturar microplásticos. Es más, el dispositivo de MIMBOX reduce el consumo de agua hasta en un 70 % al limpiar y reciclar las aguas grises, además de reducir hasta en un 30 % la energía consumida para calentar el agua.
Objetivo
Microplastics are a huge source of pollution in our seas, with up to 1.5 million tons being released per year. This poisons the underwater ecosystem and even climbs back up in the food chain to affect human health (estimates show that we eat about 5 grams of plastic each week). Washing machines contribute to about 35% of this problem, in the form of the 700,000 pieces of synthetic microfibres found in the greywater of each wash.
Our company Mimbly has designed the Mimbox, the first ever “plug-and-play” add-on device that can connect to any type of washing machine to capture the microplastics released during each wash, acting as a single barrier to retain microplastics as small as 50 microns from reaching the waterways. At the heart of its innovation is a self-cleaning filtering technology, of which we are in a patent process. The Mimbox also cuts up to 70% of water consumption by cleaning and recycling the greywater, as well as reduces in a 30% the energy consumed in water heating, all with unaltered quality in the wash results. Additionally, it includes a data service functionality for customers to optimise their wash cycles.
Our first commercialisation of the technology is aimed at industrial washers and it is compatible with all brands, sizes and generations of washing machines. The Mimbox offers an attractive average payback period of 2.5-year during 11-year industrial washer lifetime, and it is the perfect compliance solution for upcoming regulations and customer’s environmental sustainability policy and brand.
The EIC accelerator project will setup and run 15 B2B customer pilots with the Mimbox MVP and demonstrate their results to additional stakeholders. We will establish scalable manufacturing partnership and distribution channels and achieve all the certifications for market release and scale-up. Our technology is expected to be used for over 100,000 washers by 2025, saving more than 1,200 tons of microplastics and 23 million m3 of water.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020-4
Régimen de financiación
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinador
411 29 Gothenburg
Suecia
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.