We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Electrocoagulation as a high-efficiency strategy for microplastic removal from water: Process optimization and predictive modeling
Summary
Scientists found that a water treatment method using electricity and iron electrodes—called electrocoagulation—can remove 100% of microplastic fibers from water in under 20 minutes, for less than a dollar per cubic meter of water treated. This matters because microplastics are increasingly found in our drinking water and have been linked to potential health concerns, so an affordable, effective way to filter them out could be a big step toward cleaner tap water. That said, this was tested in a controlled lab setting, so more research is needed to confirm it works just as well in real-world water systems.
This study evaluated and optimized the removal of polyester microplastics (MPs) from water by electrocoagulation (EC), while developing a predictive model and estimating operating cost. Synthetic effluent containing polyester MPs (51–150 µm) was treated in a batch EC system using iron electrodes, direct current, magnetic stirring, and NaCl as a supporting electrolyte. A full factorial 2 5 design (32 runs) was first applied to assess the effects of pH, voltage, operation time, NaCl concentration, and initial MPs concentration. Subsequently, a Box–Behnken design (15 runs) was used to optimize the most influential variables. Screening experiments showed high removal efficiencies ranging from 80% to 100%, identifying MPs concentration, NaCl concentration, and operation time as the dominant factors. The regression model showed strong predictive performance, with R 2 = 0.9852 and adjusted R 2 = 0.9655. Under optimized conditions of 200 mg L -1 MPs, 363.64 mg L -1 NaCl, and 18.38 min, complete MPs removal was achieved, with an estimated operating cost of US$0.57 m -3 . These results indicate that EC is an efficient and low-cost strategy for polyester MPs removal, although validation in real effluents remains necessary.