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Solutions to microplastic pollution – Removal of microplastics from wastewater effluent with advanced wastewater treatment technologies
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This study reviewed solutions for removing microplastics from wastewater effluents, comparing physical, chemical, and biological treatment approaches and identifying the most promising technologies for preventing microplastic discharge into receiving waters.
Conventional wastewater treatment with primary and secondary treatment processes efficiently remove microplastics (MPs) from the wastewater. Despite the efficient removal, final effluents can act as entrance route of MPs, given the large volumes constantly discharged into the aquatic environments. This study investigated the removal of MPs from effluent in four different municipal wastewater treatment plants utilizing different advanced final-stage treatment technologies. The study included membrane bioreactor treating primary effluent and different tertiary treatment technologies (discfilter, rapid sand filtration and dissolved air flotation) treating secondary effluent. The MBR removed 99.9% of MPs during the treatment (from 6.9 to 0.005 MP L-1), rapid sand filter 97% (from 0.7 to 0.02 MP L-1), dissolved air flotation 95% (from 2.0 to 0.1 MP L-1) and discfilter 40-98.5% (from 0.5 - 2.0 to 0.03-0.3 MP L-1) of the MPs during the treatment. Our study shows that with advanced final-stage wastewater treatment technologies WWTPs can substantially reduce the MP pollution discharged from wastewater treatment plants into the aquatic environments.
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This review examined technologies for removing microplastics from wastewater, evaluating physical, chemical, and biological treatment methods and finding that while conventional treatment plants capture a significant fraction, emerging technologies like membrane filtration and coagulation are needed to achieve more complete removal.
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This review examined leading-edge treatment technologies for removing microplastics from wastewater, as treatment plants are a major pathway for microplastics entering the environment. Researchers evaluated various advanced treatment methods including membrane filtration, advanced oxidation, and electrocoagulation for their microplastic removal efficiency. The study suggests that combining multiple treatment approaches may be necessary to effectively reduce microplastic discharge from wastewater systems.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.