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Removal of HDPE Microplastics via Al–Al Electrocoagulation in Synthetic Water and Real Municipal Wastewater: Process Optimization, Energy Trade-Offs, and Sludge Characterization
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Researchers tested an electrical water treatment method to remove tiny plastic particles (HDPE microplastics) from real municipal wastewater. The method removed about 88.5% of the microplastics at neutral pH, also reducing other pollutants, but higher electrical settings used much more energy without much extra benefit.
Microplastic (MP) contamination in wastewater is an emerging environmental concern. This study evaluated electrocoagulation (EC) using Al–Al electrodes to remove high-density polyethylene microplastics (HDPE-MP) from synthetic water and real municipal wastewater. A Box–Behnken design coupled with response surface methodology was used to assess the effects of initial pH, current density (J), initial HDPE-MP concentration, and NaCl concentration. In real municipal wastewater, the highest average HDPE-MP removal (88.5%) was achieved at pH 7, together with COD and turbidity reductions of 58.9% and 72.3%, respectively. NaCl concentration had a limited direct effect on HDPE-MP removal. Increasing the nominal current-density level did not proportionally improve removal efficiency, while average energy consumption increased from 9.11 kWh/m3 at the nominal level of 5 mA/cm2 to 33.06 kWh/m3 at the nominal level of 20 mA/cm2. XRD analysis of the recovered sludge showed poor crystalline Al-based phases and diffraction features consistent with semicrystalline HDPE. Overall, Al–Al electrocoagulation showed promising performance for HDPE-MP removal from complex wastewater matrices, although operating conditions should be optimized to balance removal efficiency and energy consumption.
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