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Effects of Micro(nano)plastics on Anaerobic Digestion and Their Influencing Mechanisms
Summary
This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics from organic waste streams affect anaerobic digestion (AD) performance, covering impacts on methane production, microbial community structure, and enzyme activity. It identifies plastic polymer type and concentration as key variables determining whether MPs stimulate or inhibit digestion processes.
Micro(nano)plastics are important emerging contaminants and a current research hotspot in the environmental field. Micro(nano)plastics widely exist in various organic wastes such as waste sludge, food waste (FW) and livestock manure and often enter into digesters along with anaerobic digestion (AD) treatment of these wastes, thereby exerting extensive and profound influences on anaerobic process performance. This study reviews sources of micro(nano)plastics and their pathways entering the anaerobic system and summarizes the quantities, sizes, shapes and micromorphology of various micro(nano)plastics in waste sludge, FW, livestock manure, yard waste and municipal solid waste. The current advances on the effects of multiple micro(nano)plastics mainly polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) with different sizes and quantities (or concentrations) on AD of organic wastes in terms of methane production, organic acid degradation and process stability are comprehensively overviewed and mechanisms of micro(nano)plastics affecting AD involved in microbial cells, key enzymes, microbial communities and antibiotic resistance genes are analyzed. Meanwhile, coupling effects of micro(nano)plastics with some typical pollutants such as antibiotics and heavy metals on AD are also reviewed. Due to the extreme complexity of the anaerobic system, current research still lacks full understanding concerning composite influences of different types, sizes and concentrations of micro(nano)plastics on AD under various operating modes. Future research should focus on elucidating mechanisms of micro(nano)plastics affecting organic metabolic pathways and the expression of specific functional genes of microorganisms, exploring the fate and transformation of micro(nano)plastics along waste streams including but not limited to AD, investigating the interaction between micro(nano)plastics and other emerging contaminants (such as perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulphonate) and their coupling effects on anaerobic systems, and developing accurate detection and quantification methods for micro(nano)plastics and technologies for eliminating the negative impacts of micro(nano)plastics on AD.