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Nanoplastics in water and wastewater: remediation technologies, challenges, and future perspectives
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This review paper examines methods for removing tiny plastic particles, called nanoplastics, from water and wastewater. It finds that techniques like filtration and chemical treatment often just move the particles elsewhere rather than destroying them, while advanced chemical treatments can break them down under certain conditions. The authors say more testing in real water systems is needed to confirm which methods truly remove nanoplastics.
Nanoplastics (NPs) are emerging contaminants of increasing concern in aquatic environments because their small size, colloidal behavior, and surface reactivity complicate their detection and remediation. This review critically evaluates physical, physicochemical, biological, and hybrid technologies for NP remediation in water and wastewater, focusing on treatment mechanisms and endpoints, analytical evidence, matrix-dependent performance, practical applicability, and sustainability. An evidence-based treatment-endpoint framework is applied to distinguish capture/separation, aggregation followed by separation, fragmentation, degradation, and mineralization rather than comparing technologies solely on the basis of reported removal efficiencies. Current evidence indicates that membrane filtration, coagulation/flocculation, and adsorption can achieve substantial aqueous-phase removal under suitable conditions but predominantly transfer NPs to membranes, sludge, concentrates, or spent adsorbents rather than destroying the polymer. Advanced oxidation processes can promote polymer degradation and, under appropriate conditions, mineralization; however, their performance depends on reaction conditions, water-matrix characteristics, resource requirements, and the analytical evidence supporting the treatment endpoint. Biological approaches may offer lower-input alternatives but remain constrained by slow kinetics, polymer specificity, and limited evidence of extensive degradation. Hybrid systems can integrate particle capture and degradation, although their complexity may limit large-scale implementation. Major barriers include inconsistent treatment endpoints, incomplete NP mass balances, reliance on pristine particles and simplified matrices, analytical limitations, secondary-residual generation, and limited pilot-scale validation. Future research should prioritize real water matrices, environmentally relevant and aged NPs, complementary analytical methods, mass-balance verification, and systematic evaluation of energy demand, chemical consumption, residual management, cost, scalability, and life-cycle impacts to distinguish apparent removal from effective and sustainable remediation.
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Removal of nanoplastics in water treatment processes: A review
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This review examines technologies for removing nanoplastics from water, noting that conventional treatment processes effective for larger plastics often fail to capture these tiny particles. Researchers evaluated emerging methods including microbial degradation, membrane filtration, and photocatalysis, finding that combined approaches offer the best removal rates. The study highlights that more research is needed to develop practical, large-scale solutions for nanoplastic contamination in drinking water and wastewater.
Nano/microplastics in water and wastewater treatment processes – Origin, impact and potential solutions
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This review examined the origin, fate, and impacts of nano- and microplastics in water and wastewater treatment processes, finding that small particle sizes and diverse polymer compositions make complete removal challenging across conventional and advanced treatment stages. The authors identify detection limitations and process instability as key barriers to effective water treatment for nanoplastics.
Nanomaterials for microplastics remediation in wastewater: A viable step towards cleaner water
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This review examines how nanomaterials, tiny engineered particles with high surface area and reactivity, can be used to remove microplastics from water more effectively than traditional methods like filtration and sedimentation. While promising, these technologies face challenges including high production costs, potential toxicity of the nanomaterials themselves, and difficulty scaling up from lab to real-world applications. Improving these methods is important because current water treatment often fails to remove the smallest and most harmful microplastic particles.
Strategies for the Remediation of Micro- and Nanoplastics from Contaminated Food and Water: Advancements and Challenges
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This review summarizes existing research on methods for removing micro- and nanoplastics from contaminated food and water, including filtration, chemical treatment, and biological approaches using microorganisms. While several promising techniques exist, the complexity of real-world plastic pollution makes it difficult to scale these solutions, and more cross-disciplinary research is needed to protect food and water safety.
Micro/nanoplastics: from synthesis to assimilation, global environmental impacts, challenges, consequences, and advanced remediation strategies.
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This review summarizes existing research on tiny plastic particles found in water, soil, and air, and how they affect plants, animals, and microorganisms. It also covers methods being developed to remove these particles from the environment, including filtering, chemical treatments, and recycling, while noting that removal methods are still being developed.
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