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Methods to recover and characterize microplastics in wastewater treatment plants
Summary
This review systematically examines methods used to recover and characterize microplastics from wastewater treatment plants, identifying key methodological challenges including inconsistent extraction procedures, contamination risks, and varying identification techniques that complicate cross-study comparisons. The authors provide recommendations for standardizing WWTP microplastic analysis to improve the reliability and comparability of removal efficiency data.
Microplastics released from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as one of the important sources of microplastics pollution in the environment. While many studies have focused on the occurrence, identification and characterization of microplastics in WWTPs, there is a lack of thorough understanding on methods used to identify and characterize MPs in WWTPs. This work focuses on reviewing the current studies on the occurrence and transfer of MPs in WWTPs and the comparison of sampling methods, extraction approaches, and analytical techniques for the identification and characterization of MPs in WWTPs. The results reviewed demonstrate that the removal of other organic and inorganic contents in the wastewater and sludge samples is critical for the visualization and identification using FTIR and Raman analytical methods, and the integration of FTIR and Raman analysis, spectra mapping, and image processing could play an important role in the development of practical characterization and quantification methods for MPs analysis in WWTPs.