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Exploring the potential impacts of microplastics on greenhouse gas emissions in wastewater treatment
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This review analyzed how microplastics in wastewater treatment plants affect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, focusing on mechanisms by which microplastics alter microbial communities and their metabolic processes. The plastisphere was identified as a key site for altered methane and nitrous oxide production, with implications for climate reporting from the water sector.
Microplastics (MPs) have emerged as pervasive contaminants in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), where they interact extensively with microbial communities responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) production. Despite growing concerns about MP impacts on wastewater treatment processes, the underlying mechanisms by which MPs affect GHG emissions remain largely unexplored. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the intricate relationships between MPs and GHG emissions in WWTPs. MP sources, properties, and removal efficiencies are systematically examined, and the fundamental mechanisms governing GHG production in the plastisphere are analyzed. The mechanisms by which MPs modulate microbial processes through physical, chemical, and biological pathways are summarized, with particular focus on methane and nitrous oxide emissions. By critically assessing existing literature and identifying knowledge gaps, this review establishes the scientific foundation for developing integrated management strategies that simultaneously address MP contamination and GHG emission in wastewater treatment.
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A review of microplastics stress on nitrogen conversion and nitrous oxide emissions from biological wastewater treatment: Efficiency, mechanism and prospects
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This review analyzes how microplastics affect nitrogen conversion processes and nitrous oxide emissions during biological wastewater treatment. Researchers found that microplastics can disrupt key nitrogen-cycling steps including nitrification and denitrification, potentially increasing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. The study highlights the dual environmental concern of microplastics interfering with both water treatment efficiency and climate-relevant gas emissions.
The impact of microplastics and nanoplastics on biological nitrogen removal processes: Exacerbating the greenhouse effect
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This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics accumulate in wastewater treatment plants and interfere with the biological processes that remove nitrogen from water. The disruption leads to increased emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, making the problem both an environmental health concern and a climate issue. The findings suggest that microplastic contamination in wastewater is undermining treatment effectiveness while simultaneously contributing to global warming.
Plastisphere-mediated nitrogen cycling and N2O emissions in inland waters: A systematic review
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Researchers synthesized evidence that microplastic biofilms in freshwater systems selectively enrich nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria while suppressing the gene responsible for converting nitrous oxide to nitrogen gas, creating conditions that amplify N₂O emissions — with biodegradable plastics posing an unexpectedly complex greenhouse gas risk.
Insights into N2O turnovers under polyethylene terephthalate microplastics stress in mainstream biological nitrogen removal process
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Long-term exposure of biological nitrogen removal (BNR) wastewater systems to polyethylene terephthalate microplastics at concentrations up to 500 micrograms per liter altered nitrous oxide (N2O) production and reduction during denitrification over 100-plus days of treatment. The findings suggest MPs in municipal wastewater could inadvertently increase greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment plants.
Microbial Perspective: Regulatory Mechanisms of Interactions Between Microplastics and Dissolved Organic Matter on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Aquatic Ecosystems
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Scientists reviewed 16 studies and found that plastic pollution in lakes, rivers, and oceans can change how much climate-warming gas water bodies release—boosting CO2 emissions while reducing another gas, N2O, with effects growing stronger the longer plastics linger and break down. This matters because microplastics aren't just a pollution or ingestion concern—they may also be quietly reshaping our planet's climate by altering how water ecosystems process carbon and nitrogen, adding another way plastic pollution could affect the environment we all depend on.
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