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Microplastics aging in wastewater treatment plants: Focusing on physicochemical characteristics changes and corresponding environmental risks

Water Research 2022 90 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 60 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Xuran Liu, Xuran Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Xuran Liu, Qian Deng, Qian Deng, Qian Deng, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Qian Deng, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yuyang Zheng, Yuyang Zheng, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Xuran Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xuran Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Dongbo Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xuran Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Xuran Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Dongbo Wang, Dongbo Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni

Summary

This review examines how microplastics undergo physical and chemical changes during wastewater treatment, including alterations to their shape, size, density, and surface properties. These changes affect how microplastics behave once released into the environment, influencing their ability to carry pollutants and interact with living organisms. The study highlights that understanding these transformations is just as important as measuring how many microplastics are removed during treatment.

Study Type Environmental

Microplastics (MPs) have been frequently detected in effluent wastewater and sludge in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the discharge and agricultural application of which represent a primary source of environmental MPs contamination. As important as quantitative removal is, changes of physicochemical characteristics of MPs (e.g., shapes, sizes, density, crystallinity) in WWTPs are crucial to their environmental behaviors and risks and have not been put enough attention yet. This review is therefore to provide a current overview on the changes of physicochemical characteristics of MPs in WWTPs and their corresponding environmental risks. The changes of physicochemical characteristics as well as the underlying mechanisms of MPs in different successional wastewater and sludge treatment stages that mainly driven by mechanical (e.g., mixing, pumping, filtering), chemical (e.g., flocculation, advanced oxidation, ultraviolet radiation, thermal hydrolysis, incineration and lime stabilization), biological (e.g., activated sludge process, anaerobic digestion, composition) and their combination effects were first recapitulated. Then, the inevitable correlations between physicochemical characteristics of MPs and their environmental behaviors (e.g., migration, adsorption) and risks (e.g., animals, plants, microbes), are comprehensively discussed with particular emphasis on the leaching of additives and physicochemical characteristics that affect the co-exist pollutants behavior of MPs in WWTPs on environmental risks. Finally, knowing the summarized above, some relating unanswered questions and concerns that need to be unveiled in the future are prospected. The physicochemical properties of MPs change after passing through WWTP, leading to subsequent changes in co-contaminant adsorption, migration, and toxicity. This could threaten our ecosystems and human health and must be worth investigating.

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