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Treating wastewater for microplastics to a level on par with nearby marine waters
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Researchers studied microplastic removal at one of Sweden's most advanced wastewater treatment plants and found that it achieved a 99.98% removal rate, bringing discharge concentrations down to levels comparable to the surrounding marine waters. The mechanical pre-treatment stage was responsible for the largest share of removal, with activated sludge acting as the main collection point for captured particles. The study demonstrates that well-designed modern treatment plants do not have to be significant sources of microplastic pollution.
Retention of microplastics (MPs) at the third largest wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Sweden was investigated. The plant is one of the most modern and advanced of its kind, with rapid sand filter for tertiary treatment in combination with mechanical, biological, and chemical treatment. It achieved a significantly high treatment efficiency, which brought the MP concentration in its discharge on par with concentrations measured in marine waters of the same region. This novel data shows that properly designed modern WWTPs can reduce the MP content of sewage down to background levels measured in the receiving aquatic environment. Opposite to current understanding of the retention of MP by WWTPs, a modern and well-designed WWTP does not have to be a significant point source for MP. MPs were quantified at all major treatment steps, including digester inlet and outlet sludge. MPs sized 10-500 µm were analyzed by a focal plane array based micro-Fourier transform infrared (FPA-µFTIR) microscopy, a hyperspectral imaging technique, while MPs above 500 µm were analyzed by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Mass was estimated from the hyperspectral images for MPs <500 µm and from microscope images >500 µm. The overall treatment efficiency was in terms of MP counts 99.98 %, with a daily input of 6.42 × 10 and output of 1.04 × 10 particles. The mass removal efficiency was 99.99 %. The mechanical part of the treatment, the pre-treatment, and primary stages, reduced both the MP counts and mass by approximately 71 %. The combined biological treatment, secondary settling, and final polishing with rapid sand filtration removed nearly all the remaining 29 %. MPs became successively smaller as they passed the different treatment steps. The digester inlet received 1.04 × 10 MPs daily, while it discharged 9.96 × 10 MPs, causing a small but not significant decrease in MP counts, with a corresponding MP mass reduction of 9.56 %.
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