The commercial venture built to scale patent-pending magnetic-liquid technology for detecting and removing microplastic pollution — from lab-proven science to deployed infrastructure.
LLC
For-profit entity
95%+
Extraction rate
Filed
Patent pending
2019
R&D since
In the Press
European Patent Office · 2023 · Fionn Ferreira on removing microplastics from water
The Market
Since mass plastic production began in the 1950s, humanity has made over nine billion tonnes of the stuff — most of which still exists in some form today. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade; it just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces small enough to evade most existing water treatment and detection infrastructure. That gap — between the scale of the problem and the state of the tools to address it — is the market opportunity.
> 25 mm
Roughly a bottle cap, or larger
5 mm – 1 µm
From a grain of sand down to a human hair
< 1 µm
Smaller than a red blood cell — invisible under a standard microscope
Microplastics are usually split into two categories: primary particles, manufactured small from the start, and secondary particles, formed when larger plastic items break down. Five sources account for most of what ends up in the environment.
A single laundry load can shed hundreds of thousands of microfibres from polyester, nylon, and acrylic clothing — thought to be the largest source of primary microplastics reaching the ocean.
Every time a car brakes, corners, or accelerates it sheds particles of synthetic rubber. Tyre wear is estimated to be the single largest source of microplastics released into the environment overall.
Exfoliating microbeads in scrubs, toothpaste, and cosmetics have been phased out in some countries, but remain legal and common elsewhere.
Raw plastic "nurdles" spilled during manufacturing, shipping, and handling — an under-reported source of pollution concentrated near ports and production sites.
UV light, waves, and abrasion slowly fragment bottles, bags, and packaging into ever-smaller pieces. This "secondary" pathway accounts for most of the microplastic mass already in the environment.
From source, to environment, to the food chain, to the human body — every stage of this journey is a point where our technology can intervene.
Stage 1
Textiles, tyres, cosmetics, industrial pellets, and the slow breakdown of larger plastic debris.
Stage 2
Carried into oceans, soil, drinking water, and the air — settling almost everywhere on Earth.
Stage 3
Taken up into seafood, salt, and produce — the food and water people consume every day.
Stage 4
Detected in blood, lungs, and placental tissue — and, per a 2024 study, in arterial plaque.
What We’re Building
Fionn & Co. develops and commercializes technology built on peer-reviewed science. Our mission is to take microplastic detection and removal from lab-proven prototype to deployed, revenue-generating infrastructure.
Commercial deployment and licensing of our patent-pending magnetic-liquid extraction technology for municipalities, water utilities, and industry.
Purpose-built hardware and software for measuring microplastic contamination in water — built to be faster and cheaper than the lab equipment it replaces.
Contract research and IP licensing partnerships with industry and government, built on the same underlying science as our own products.
The Technology
Our removal method started with a simple discovery: a proprietary magnetic liquid that binds to microplastic particles suspended in water. It’s the technique Fionn originally developed, and that Fionn & Co. now continues to test, refine, and scale commercially.
The exact formulation is our core IP, so we keep the chemistry close to the chest. What we can share is the principle: a proprietary, non-toxic magnetic liquid is mixed into contaminated water, where it attaches to microplastic particles rather than to the water itself. Because the liquid is magnetic, all it takes to pull the plastic back out again is a magnet.
Step 1
Water carrying microplastic fragments and fibres — from a waterway, a wastewater outflow, or a lab test rig.
Step 2
A proprietary, non-toxic magnetic liquid is mixed into the sample.
Step 3
The magnetic liquid preferentially binds to microplastic particles rather than the surrounding water. The exact chemistry is part of our IP.
Step 4
Because the liquid is magnetic, a magnet draws the plastic-laden clusters straight out of the water.
Step 5
What's left behind is cleaner water — and a concentrated, magnet-collected sample of plastic ready to be counted, identified, or disposed of.
In prototype testing, this method achieved 95%+ extraction of microplastics from water across a range of common polymer types. Fionn & Co.’s current work is focused on validating and scaling those results into commercial-grade extraction and detection systems.
Investment
Fionn & Co. is raising capital to take patent-pending magnetic-liquid extraction and detection technology from lab-validated prototype to commercial deployment — manufacturing, field pilots, and go-to-market. If you invest in environmental deep tech and want to back this early, we’d love to talk.
The Team
A small team spanning science, engineering, and law — built to move Fionn & Co. from lab bench to shipped product.
Founder
Founded Fionn & Co. to commercialize his award-winning research into extracting microplastics from water with a proprietary magnetic liquid.
Founder
Co-founded Fionn & Co. to help turn early-stage research into a scalable, investable company.
Legal Counsel
Advises Fionn & Co. on corporate structure, IP strategy, and legal affairs.
Chief Engineer
Leads engineering on Fionn & Co.'s detection and extraction technology.
More on the Founder
Fionn grew up in Ballydehob, West Cork, the son of two boatbuilders — kayaking the Atlantic coastline and watching the tide bring in more plastic every year. At 16, he discovered that a magnetic liquid could bind to microplastic particles and pull them out of water with a magnet, winning the 2019 Google Science Fair Global Grand Prize against 2,000+ projects from 80+ countries. Since then he’s taken the microplastics crisis to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the House of Lords in London, been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and a National Geographic Explorer, and worked as a TV presenter, fluent in five languages. He’s now a doctoral researcher in Professor Alexander Barnes’ group at ETH Zürich, developing high-temperature superconducting magnets for NMR spectroscopy — alongside building Fionn & Co. Read more on Wikipedia →
Fionn & Co. LLC · fionnferreira.com