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Assessing the Mass Concentration of Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
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Researchers used pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to measure the mass concentration of both microplastics and nanoplastics at different stages of wastewater treatment. They found that treatment plants removed over 93% of microplastics and nanoplastics by mass, but measurable amounts still remained in treated effluent. The study provides important data on nanoplastic levels in wastewater, which have been largely unmeasured due to limitations of previous detection methods.
The level of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has been well evaluated by the particle number, while the mass concentration of MPs and especially nanoplastics (NPs) remains unclear. In this study, pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to determine the mass concentrations of MPs and NPs with different size ranges (0.01-1, 1-50, and 50-1000 μm) across the whole treatment schemes in two WWTPs. The mass concentrations of total MPs and NPs decreased from 26.23 and 11.28 μg/L in the influent to 1.75 and 0.71 μg/L in the effluent, with removal rates of 93.3 and 93.7% in plants A and B, respectively. The proportions of NPs (0.01-1 μm) were 12.0-17.9 and 5.6-19.5% in plants A and B, respectively, and the removal efficiency of NPs was lower than that of MPs (>1 μm). Based on annual wastewater effluent discharge, it is estimated that about 0.321 and 0.052 tons of MPs and NPs were released into the river each year. Overall, this study investigated the mass concentration of MPs and NPs with a wide size range of 0.01-1000 μm in wastewater, which provided valuable information regarding the pollution level and distribution characteristics of MPs, especially NPs, in WWTPs.
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