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Papers
127 resultsShowing papers from Delft University of Technology
ClearPhoto-oxidation of Micro- and Nanoplastics: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Effects in Environments
This review examines how sunlight breaks down micro- and nanoplastics in the environment, changing their surface properties and making them interact differently with pollutants and living organisms. Sun-aged plastic particles can become more toxic to aquatic life and affect soil microbe communities, but many questions remain about these processes under real-world conditions.
2024 roadmap on membrane desalination technology at the water-energy nexus
This roadmap review covers the latest advances in membrane technology for turning seawater and brackish water into drinking water. While the paper focuses on desalination engineering, it notes that membrane filtration is also being explored as a way to remove microplastics from water supplies, which is relevant to reducing human exposure through drinking water.
A Review of Sustainability Standards and Ecolabeling in the Textile Industry
This review examines sustainability standards and eco-labels in the textile industry, which is a major source of microplastic pollution through synthetic fiber shedding during manufacturing and washing. The authors found that while many eco-labels exist, they vary widely in rigor and often do not specifically address microplastic release. Stronger and more consistent standards are needed to reduce the textile industry's contribution to microplastic contamination in waterways and the environment.
Groundwater is a hidden global keystone ecosystem
This study argues that groundwater should be recognized as a "keystone ecosystem" because of its critical role in sustaining surface environments, biodiversity, and human water supplies. Over half of the world's land surface has significant interaction with groundwater, yet it remains overlooked in conservation planning. Protecting groundwater is essential for planetary health, including safeguarding water sources from emerging contaminants like microplastics.
Advancing river monitoring using image-based techniques: challenges and opportunities
This review examines advances in using cameras, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence to monitor rivers, covering applications from flood tracking to water quality assessment. While not focused on microplastics directly, these image-based monitoring tools could be adapted to detect and track visible plastic pollution in waterways. Improved river monitoring technology is an important step toward understanding and reducing the sources of microplastic contamination in freshwater systems.
Microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: Detection, occurrence and removal
Researchers investigated how polystyrene nanoplastics affect the marine microalga Chaetoceros neogracile and found that exposure reduced growth and photosynthetic activity. The nanoplastics physically attached to the algal cells and triggered oxidative stress, suggesting they can interfere with the base of the marine food web. The study raises concerns that nanoplastic pollution could have cascading effects on ocean ecosystems by harming the tiny organisms that produce much of the world's oxygen.
Traded Plastic, Traded Impacts? Designing Counterfactual Scenarios to Assess Environmental Impacts of Global Plastic Waste Trade
This study used life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impact of global plastic waste trade in 2022 across 18 countries. The research found that trading plastic waste internationally resulted in lower overall environmental impacts compared to countries processing all their waste domestically, partly because importing countries have higher recycling rates. However, the benefits depend heavily on actual recycling rates, and the trade can shift pollution burdens to lower-income countries.
Assessing the Mass Concentration of Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
Researchers used pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to measure the mass concentration of both microplastics and nanoplastics at different stages of wastewater treatment. They found that treatment plants removed over 93% of microplastics and nanoplastics by mass, but measurable amounts still remained in treated effluent. The study provides important data on nanoplastic levels in wastewater, which have been largely unmeasured due to limitations of previous detection methods.
Review of mayflies (Insecta Ephemeroptera) as a bioindicator of heavy metals and microplastics in freshwater
This review examines how mayflies can serve as living indicators of heavy metal and microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems. Changes in mayfly populations, behavior, and body chemistry reflect contamination levels in rivers and streams. Since microplastics can carry heavy metals into waterways and up the food chain, monitoring these sensitive insects helps scientists track pollution that could ultimately affect human drinking water and food sources.
Oligomers are a major fraction of the submicrometre particles released during washing of polyester textiles
Researchers found that washing polyester textiles releases billions of submicrometre-sized particles per gram of fabric, but 34-89% of these tiny particles are actually plastic oligomers (short chemical chains) rather than solid plastic fragments. The number of particles released during washing correlated with how many were already present on the fiber surface before washing. This finding is significant because it means the nanoplastic pollution from laundry may be chemically different from what scientists assumed, potentially requiring different approaches to assess its health effects.
The E factor at 30: a passion for pollution prevention
This commentary reflects on 30 years since the introduction of the E Factor, a metric for measuring waste in chemical manufacturing. The author argues that waste generation remains the root cause of major environmental problems, from climate change to plastic pollution. The piece calls for continued innovation in green chemistry to minimize waste at its source rather than managing it after the fact.
Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystem: Exploring the menace to the soil-plant-microbe interactions
This review summarizes existing research on how microplastics affect the complex relationships between soil, plants, and soil microbes. Microplastics alter soil structure, change the makeup of microbial communities, and disrupt beneficial partnerships between plants and helpful fungi and bacteria. These disruptions can reduce plant growth and nutrient cycling, which could ultimately affect crop yields and the quality of food produced on microplastic-contaminated farmland.
The extent to which circular economy principles have been applied in the design of medical devices for low-resource settings in Sub-Saharan Africa. A systematic review
This systematic review found that circular economy principles — designing for reuse, repair, and recycling — have been minimally applied to medical device design in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most devices are still designed for single-use or short lifespans, creating massive waste and missed opportunities for sustainable healthcare.
Natural Organic Matter Stabilizes Pristine Nanoplastics but Destabilizes Photochemical Weathered Nanoplastics in Monovalent Electrolyte Solutions
This study examined how sunlight weathering and natural organic matter coatings change the behavior of nanoplastics in water. Researchers found that organic matter stabilizes fresh nanoplastics but actually destabilizes sun-weathered ones, meaning aged nanoplastics in natural waters may clump together and settle differently than expected, affecting where they end up in aquatic environments.
Microbial Dynamics on Different Microplastics in Coastal Urban Aquatic Ecosystems: The Critical Roles of Extracellular Polymeric Substances
Researchers investigated how microbial communities colonize different types of microplastics in urban coastal waters, forming distinct ecosystems known as plastispheres. They found that the type of plastic significantly shaped which bacteria grew on it and how much sticky extracellular material they produced. Understanding these microbial communities on microplastics matters because they can harbor harmful bacteria and influence how pollutants move through aquatic environments.
Transforming Zeolite Tuff and Cigarette Waste into Eco-Friendly Ceramic Bricks for Sustainable Construction
Researchers explored using cigarette waste mixed with natural zeolite tuff to create eco-friendly ceramic bricks. The study found that adding cigarette waste improved the bricks' thermal insulation and made them lighter, though it slightly reduced their strength. This approach could offer a practical way to repurpose a difficult-to-recycle waste stream into sustainable building materials.
Disentangling Variability in Riverbank Macrolitter Observations
Researchers analyzed two years of citizen science observations of riverbank litter across over 200 locations in the Dutch Rhine-Meuse delta. They found that while observer bias was minimal, weather and river flow conditions explained some variation in litter counts, though the majority of variability remained unexplained. The study suggests that macrolitter dynamics in rivers are complex and likely driven by multiple factors beyond what current monitoring approaches can fully capture.
Adsorption characteristics and mechanisms of water-soluble polymers (PVP and PEG) on kaolin and montmorillonite minerals
Researchers studied how water-soluble polymers like PEG and PVP — sometimes called "liquid plastics" used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and industry — bind to soil mineral particles, finding that hydrogen bonding and molecular weight both control how much polymer sticks to the mineral surface. Understanding how these soluble plastics move through soil is important for assessing their risk to groundwater and ecosystems.
Plastic waste discharge to the global ocean constrained by seawater observations
Researchers used ocean plastic concentration data combined with multiple ocean circulation models to estimate that approximately 0.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, though uncertainty spans nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude. The study emphasizes that improving emission inventories and ocean monitoring data are the highest priorities for reducing uncertainty in global plastic pollution estimates.
Toward sustainable space exploration: a roadmap for harnessing the power of microorganisms
Researchers outlined how microbial biotechnologies — using microorganisms to process resources and recycle waste — could make long-duration space exploration sustainable without relying on Earth for supplies. Many of the same technologies, such as bioremediation and nutrient cycling, could also address environmental challenges back on Earth.
More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean
Researchers developed a model to estimate global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean and found that more than 1,000 rivers account for 80% of emissions, rather than just a handful of large rivers as previously assumed. The study suggests that plastic pollution is geographically distributed across many smaller river systems worldwide, which has important implications for developing targeted mitigation strategies.
Mass Concentration and Removal Characteristics of Microplastics and Nanoplastics in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant
Researchers measured both microplastics and nanoplastics by mass throughout an entire drinking water treatment plant, finding that raw water contained about 9.6 micrograms per liter of plastic polymers. Treatment reduced this by roughly 92%, but nanoplastics and very small microplastics were harder to remove than larger particles. The study highlights the importance of measuring plastic contamination by mass, not just by particle count, for a more accurate picture of exposure through drinking water.
Polystyrene nanoplastics are unlikely to aggregate in freshwater bodies
Researchers tested whether polystyrene nanoplastics clump together in realistic freshwater conditions and found that they remained stable and dispersed even after a week. Smaller nanoplastics were slightly less stable than larger ones in calcium-rich water, but in natural surface water, canal water, and tap water, no aggregation occurred. The findings suggest that nanoplastics are likely to remain as individual particles in freshwater bodies, which may increase their potential to spread and interact with organisms.
Identification and Quantification of Nanoplastics in Surface Water and Groundwater by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
Researchers developed a method combining ultrafiltration and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify and quantify nanoplastics in surface water and groundwater. The study successfully detected six types of plastic polymers at the nanoscale in environmental water samples, providing much-needed quantitative data on nanoplastic pollution in real-world water sources.