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<title>Vortex Core - a passive microplastic separator for high-rise water systems</title>
<meta name="description" content="Vortex Core is a concept-stage research project exploring whether the water pressure a tall building already wastes can drive passive microplastic separation. A FifeCIC research project.">
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<meta property="og:description" content="A concept-stage research project into passive, gravity-driven microplastic separation for high-rise water systems. Supported by FifeCIC.">
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        <strong>Vortex Core</strong>
        <span>A FifeCIC research project</span>
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      <a href="index.html" aria-current="page">Overview</a>
      <a href="technology.html">The concept</a>
      <a href="feasibility.html">Feasibility</a>
      <a href="interest.html">Get involved</a>
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      <div>
        <p class="eyebrow">Concept &amp; feasibility stage</p>
        <h1>Vortex Core</h1>
        <p class="tagline">Purity powered by gravity</p>
        <p class="lead">
          Every tall building pumps water to a roof tank, then throws the resulting pressure
          away. Vortex Core is a concept for spending that pressure instead &mdash; spinning the
          water hard enough that density alone separates microplastics out of it.
          No pumps. No membranes. No power draw.
        </p>
        <div class="btn-row">
          <a class="btn" href="technology.html">Read the concept</a>
          <a class="btn btn-secondary" href="feasibility.html">How we intend to test it</a>
        </div>
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      <aside class="hero-panel">
        <h2>At a glance</h2>
        <ul>
          <li><strong>Design point:</strong> 2,500&ndash;3,000&nbsp;G of centrifugal force</li>
          <li><strong>Energy added:</strong> none &mdash; driven by existing head pressure</li>
          <li><strong>Separation stages:</strong> three, plus a waste-heat finishing loop</li>
          <li><strong>Reject stream:</strong> 5&ndash;10% of flow, evaporated to a dry residue</li>
          <li><strong>Target setting:</strong> high-rise residential and hotel plumbing</li>
        </ul>
      </aside>
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<section class="support-band" aria-label="Supporting organisation">
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    <img class="support-band__logo" src="assets/img/fifecic-logo.png" alt="FifeCIC">
    <div class="support-band__text">
      <strong>A public research project supported by FifeCIC.</strong>
      <span>
        FifeCIC is a Community Interest Company registered in Scotland. Vortex Core is an
        open line of enquiry, not a commercial product, and FifeCIC is not selling it.
        <a href="https://fifecic.scot/" rel="noopener">More about FifeCIC</a>
      </span>
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    <div class="callout callout-status">
      <h2>Where this actually stands</h2>
      <p>
        Vortex Core has <strong>not been built, tested or certified</strong>. There is no
        prototype, no test rig, no simulation output and no patent application. What exists is a
        detailed engineering concept, the physics that has to hold for it to work, and an honest
        list of the questions we cannot yet answer.
      </p>
      <p>
        We are publishing it at this stage on purpose. If the concept is sound, the fastest way to
        find out is in simulation &mdash; and that work is easier to do with others than alone.
        <a href="feasibility.html">See the open questions &rarr;</a>
      </p>
    </div>

    <section>
      <h2 class="section-title">The problem worth attacking</h2>
      <p class="section-sub">
        Two long-standing problems in the same place: what is in the water, and what it costs to
        work around it.
      </p>
      <div class="cards">
        <div class="card card-accent">
          <span class="card-icon">&#128167;</span>
          <h3>Microplastics are in the water supply</h3>
          <p>
            Microplastics have been detected in drinking water sources and in bottled water
            worldwide. The World Health Organization reviewed the evidence in 2019 and judged the
            health risk at current exposure levels to be low, while identifying substantial gaps in
            the data. The concern is real; the certainty is not yet there.
          </p>
        </div>
        <div class="card card-accent-green">
          <span class="card-icon">&#127961;</span>
          <h3>Tall buildings waste their own pressure</h3>
          <p>
            Water pumped to a roof tank arrives at the base of the riser at roughly 80&ndash;100&nbsp;PSI
            &mdash; far above what fixtures allow. Pressure-reducing valves shed that surplus as
            friction and heat. It is a genuine energy stream, discarded by design.
          </p>
        </div>
        <div class="card card-accent-tan">
          <span class="card-icon">&#9851;</span>
          <h3>Bottled water is a recurring liability</h3>
          <p>
            Buildings that supply bottled water to guests, staff or residents carry a permanent
            cost and a permanent plastic waste stream. Removing the reason to buy it is more
            durable than paying to manage it.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </section>

    <section>
      <h2 class="section-title">The idea in three moves</h2>
      <p class="section-sub">
        Each stage exists to exploit a physical difference that already exists in the water.
      </p>
      <div class="cards">
        <div class="card card-accent">
          <h3>1. Spend the pressure, don&rsquo;t lose it</h3>
          <p>
            Replace the pressure-reducing valve with a tangential inlet. Water enters at 2&ndash;5&nbsp;m/s
            and is forced into a tight spiral, converting head pressure into rotational energy
            &mdash; and delivering the pressure reduction the building needed anyway.
          </p>
        </div>
        <div class="card card-accent-green">
          <h3>2. Let density do the sorting</h3>
          <p>
            Heavy plastics &mdash; PET and PVC at 1.3&ndash;1.5&nbsp;g/cm&sup3; &mdash; are thrown outward and
            fall to a collection point. Light polymers &mdash; PE and PP at 0.85&ndash;0.95&nbsp;g/cm&sup3;
            &mdash; are drawn into the low-pressure core and skimmed off. Water sits in the middle.
          </p>
        </div>
        <div class="card card-accent-tan">
          <h3>3. Evaporate what is left</h3>
          <p>
            The reject stream is a small fraction of total flow. Routing it past the building&rsquo;s
            own waste heat &mdash; chiller returns, server rooms, solar gain &mdash; drives off the water
            and leaves dry plastic for recycling, rather than a liquid waste discharge.
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </section>

    <section>
      <h2 class="section-title">Update: catching the dense fraction on the way past</h2>
      <p class="section-sub">
        A second arrangement of the same chamber, added 28 September 2026.
      </p>

      <p>
        In the arrangement used above, heavy plastics fall the full length of the cone and leave at the apex.
        A variation diverts them earlier: a lip on the wall turns the outer stream &mdash; the layer the dense
        particles have been thrown into &mdash; into a scoop and out to a trough on each side. The bottom
        outlet then carries mostly water instead of a loaded slurry.
      </p>

      <figure class="figure" style="margin-top:26px">
        <img src="assets/img/device-with-collection-scoops.svg" width="680" height="510"
             alt="Cross-section of a hydrocyclone fitted with collection scoops. Feed enters tangentially at the upper left and spirals down the outer wall, where dense PET and PVC particles are shown drifting outward. A lip on each side of the cone diverts the outer stream into a scoop, and the heavy fraction leaves through a trough on both sides. Light PE and PP particles are carried inward and rise up the core to leave through the vortex finder as overflow. The cone tip below the scoops discharges mostly water.">
        <figcaption>
          <strong>The scoop arrangement.</strong> The lip diverts the outer stream into a trough on each
          side, so the dense fraction leaves part-way down the cone rather than at the apex. Purple
          particles are PET and PVC; orange ones are the lighter PE and PP riding the rising core.
          <em>Illustration of intended behaviour; not an engineering drawing.</em>
        </figcaption>
      </figure>

      <p>
        Neither arrangement is known to be the better one. A scoop captures the dense fraction while it is
        still concentrated against the wall, but it puts a lip and a trough inside the vessel, where they can
        wear or block. The plain apex underflow adds no internal geometry at all, but it carries more water
        out with the plastic. That trade-off is one of the
        <a href="feasibility.html">open questions the simulation has to settle</a>.
      </p>
    </section>

    <section>
      <h2 class="section-title">The honest hard part</h2>
      <p class="section-sub">
        Centrifugal separation works. The open question is whether it works on the particle sizes
        that matter, at the pressures a real building provides.
      </p>
      <div class="prose">
        <p>
          The force required rises steeply as particles get smaller. At 50&nbsp;&micro;m, separating
          polyethylene needs around 147&nbsp;G; at 5&nbsp;&micro;m the same calculation gives roughly
          14,679&nbsp;G. Our design point is 2,500&ndash;3,000&nbsp;G, which comfortably covers larger
          particles and smaller, denser ones &mdash; but not the smallest buoyant plastics.
        </p>
        <p>
          There is a second, subtler risk: a separator tuned to eject heavy PET can concentrate
          light polypropylene in the stream it declares clean. A device that halves a problem and
          hides the other half would be worse than useless.
        </p>
        <p>
          Both questions are answerable by modelling before anything is built. That is the work we
          want to do next, and the reason this page exists.
          <a href="feasibility.html">What we plan to test, and how &rarr;</a>
        </p>
      </div>
    </section>

    <section>
      <div class="cta">
        <div>
          <h2>Interested in this?</h2>
          <p>
            We are looking for people with an interest in the digital simulation, in the patent
            position, or in the engineering itself. Genuine enquiries only &mdash; but any serious
            one will get a reply.
          </p>
        </div>
        <a class="btn" href="interest.html">Register an interest</a>
      </div>
    </section>

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        <h4>The project</h4>
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          <li><a href="index.html">Overview</a></li>
          <li><a href="technology.html">The concept</a></li>
          <li><a href="feasibility.html">Feasibility and open questions</a></li>
          <li><a href="interest.html">Get involved</a></li>
        </ul>
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        <h4>Contact</h4>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="mailto:queries@fifecic.scot">queries@fifecic.scot</a></li>
          <li><a href="https://github.com/FifeCIC/VortexCore/issues" rel="noopener">Raise a question on GitHub</a></li>
          <li><a href="https://fifecic.scot/" rel="noopener">fifecic.scot</a></li>
        </ul>
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        <h4>Status</h4>
        <ul>
          <li>Concept and feasibility stage</li>
          <li>Nothing built or certified</li>
          <li>No patent application filed</li>
        </ul>
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        <img src="assets/img/fifecic-logo.png" alt="">
        <span>Supported by FifeCIC &mdash; a Community Interest Company registered in Scotland.</span>
      </div>
      <p style="margin-top:14px">
        Vortex Core is a research concept. No performance figures on this site are validated by
        testing, and none should be relied upon. Where a number appears, it is either a design
        target, a calculated requirement, or a stated assumption.
      </p>
      <p>
        &copy; FifeCIC. Concept and design rights reserved. We are actively exploring the
        intellectual-property position and welcome contact from anyone who can help with it.
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