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Study of sorption of pharmaceuticals and compounds from personal care products to microplastics underfield conditions
Summary
This study evaluated the removal of microplastics by rapid sand filtration in drinking water treatment, finding high removal efficiencies for particles above 20 µm but poor retention of smaller particles. The addition of coagulation and flocculation steps upstream of filtration significantly improved overall removal performance across the particle size range.
With the development of civilization and the chemical industry, a whole range of new anthropogenic substances is being introduced into the environment. Some of these substances are produced primarily - targeted for a specific purpose (e.g. pesticides and pharmaceuticals) and others are created as a by-product of chemical synthesis or they are degradation products of primary substances. Whether they are low-molecular substances or macromolecules, in addition to their positive effect on mankind, these substances can also retroactively threaten the environment, including humans. The present work deals with interactions between two groups of xenobiotics, which appear to be a huge global problem. As part of this work, the sorption of a wide group of substances belonging to pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) on man-made microplastics from three types of polymers (PVC, HDPE, and PET) in real wastewater was studied. Two different locations were chosen for this experiment - effluents from wastewater treatment plants. Several sampling devices containing different types of microplastics were installed at these sites, including artificially aged alternatives that better reflect the behavior of microplastics found in real conditions. The results of these experiments showed the ability of...