Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Biopolymer-based flocculants: a review of recent technologies

Researchers reviewed recent advances in biopolymer-based flocculants — water treatment agents derived from chitosan, starch, cellulose, and lignin — summarizing modification strategies and flocculation mechanisms, and highlighting their potential as environmentally friendly replacements for synthetic polymer flocculants that contribute to microplastic pollution in treated water.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 140 citations
Article Tier 2

Synthetic and biopolymers for lake restoration – An evaluation of flocculation mechanism and dewatering performance

Researchers compared synthetic polymer flocculants — chemicals added to water to make particles clump together so they can be removed — with biodegradable alternatives made from starch and chitosan for cleaning up nutrient-rich lake sediment. Biopolymers performed comparably for dewatering and left less phosphorus in the wastewater, making them a more environmentally friendly option that avoids adding non-degradable synthetic residues to ecosystems.

2023 Journal of Environmental Management 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of chitosan with nanoplastic in water: The effect of environmental conditions, particle properties, and potential for in situ remediation

Researchers tested chitosan — a natural polymer derived from shellfish — as a tool to aggregate and remove nanoplastic particles from water, finding it caused clumping at low doses but that high pH, dissolved organic matter, and surface chemistry of the plastics all affected its performance. The results suggest chitosan-based treatment has real potential for water remediation but requires careful tuning of environmental conditions.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Synergistic removal of microplastic fibres: Integrating Chitosan coagulation in hybrid water pre-treatment systems

Microplastic fibers are the most common type of microplastic found entering water treatment plants, yet their elongated shape makes them especially hard to remove with conventional filters. This study investigated using chitosan — a natural, biodegradable material derived from crustacean shells — as a "green" coagulant to clump fibers together so they can be more easily removed, and also developed chemically modified versions of chitosan that work across a wider range of water conditions. The results showed that combining chitosan-based coagulation with microbubble aeration creates a synergistic pretreatment system that significantly improves microplastic fiber removal while avoiding the residual metal ions left by conventional chemical coagulants.

2026 Australasian Journal of Paramedicine
Article Tier 2

Optimisation of Chitosan as A Natural Flocculant for Microplastic Remediation

Laboratory tests found that chitosan — a natural, biodegradable material derived from shellfish — can remove 68.3% of microplastics from water using a coagulation-flocculation process, with an optimal concentration of 30 ppm. Higher chitosan doses increased organic matter in the water (COD and BOD), suggesting a trade-off between microplastic removal efficiency and water quality parameters. Chitosan offers a promising eco-friendly alternative to synthetic chemicals for treating microplastic-contaminated water.

2023 Journal of Emerging Science and Engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Biopolymeric Nanocomposites for Wastewater Remediation: An Overview on Recent Progress and Challenges

This review examines how nanocomposites made from natural biopolymers like chitosan can be used to filter pollutants including microplastics out of wastewater. These biodegradable materials offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional water treatment methods, which matters for human health because cleaner wastewater means fewer microplastics reaching drinking water sources.

2024 Polymers 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Harnessing the power of amphoterically modified Chitosan coagulants for enhanced Polyester microplastic fibre removal from water

Amphoterically modified chitosan was used as a coagulant aid to capture microplastics from water, leveraging the biopolymer's charge-switching ability to bind particles across a range of pH conditions. Chitosan-based capture materials are attractive because chitosan is biodegradable and derived from renewable sources.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Coagulative removal of microplastics from aqueous matrices: Recent progresses and future perspectives

This review examines how coagulation, a common water treatment technique, can be used to remove microplastics from water. Researchers compared the effectiveness of different coagulants, finding that natural options like chitosan and protein-based coagulants achieved removal rates above 90 percent. The study highlights the promise of natural coagulants as a more sustainable approach to tackling microplastic contamination in water treatment systems.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Chitosan: A Novel Approach and Sustainable Way to Remove Contaminants and Treat Wastewater

This review examines how chitosan, a natural material derived from crustacean shells, can be used to remove pollutants including microplastics, heavy metals, and pesticides from wastewater. Chitosan's chemical structure allows it to bind and capture a wide range of contaminants, and it can be combined with other materials to improve its effectiveness. Developing affordable, biodegradable water treatment materials like chitosan could help reduce human exposure to microplastics in drinking water.

2025 Starch - Stärke 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Synergistic removal of microplastic fibres using hybrid pre-treatment: evaluation of Chitosan as a green coagulant

Researchers evaluated the capacity of existing water treatment pre-treatment methods to remove microplastic fibers and investigated chitosan — a low-molecular-weight, 75-85% deacetylated green coagulant — as an alternative to conventional chemical coagulants. The study assessed a hybrid pre-treatment approach, finding synergistic microplastic fiber removal efficiency when chitosan was combined with existing processes.

2024 Water e-Journal
Article Tier 2

Microplastic removal from wastewater through biopolymer and nanocellulose-based green technologies

Biopolymer-based coagulation and flocculation agents were shown to effectively remove microplastics from wastewater, offering a more sustainable alternative to synthetic chemical flocculants. The approach supports eco-friendly microplastic treatment that avoids adding further chemical pollutants to effluents.

2025 RSC Sustainability 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Advances in chitin and chitosan-based materials for microplastics treatment

This review summarizes advances in using chitin and chitosan-based materials for removing microplastics from wastewater. Researchers highlight that while these natural biopolymers offer promising adsorption capabilities due to their functional groups, challenges such as low selectivity and limited mechanical strength have constrained practical use. The study covers various treatment approaches including adsorption, coagulation-flocculation, membrane filtration, and air flotation technologies.

2025 Carbohydrate Polymers 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Integrated Chitosan-based coagulation and microbubble pre-treatment for improved microplastic fibre removal from water

Researchers developed a combined chitosan-based coagulation and microbubble pre-treatment system for removing microplastic fibres from water, finding that this approach overcame the limitations of conventional inorganic coagulants and improved removal efficiency for the morphologically challenging fibre fraction.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

The use of chitosan for water purification from microplastics

Researchers investigated chitosan as a sorbent for removing microplastics from water, analyzing its physicochemical properties and proposing an optimized purification method based on chitosan's sorption characteristics.

2025 Open MIND
Article Tier 2

Bio-Based Polymeric Flocculants and Adsorbents for Wastewater Treatment

This review explores how materials derived from natural biological sources, such as plant-based polymers, can be used as flocculants and adsorbents to remove contaminants from wastewater. Researchers found that these bio-based materials offer advantages including biodegradability, low cost, and effectiveness in trapping pollutants through both clumping and surface binding mechanisms. The study suggests that bio-based polymeric materials are a promising sustainable alternative to synthetic chemicals currently used in water treatment.

2023 Sustainability 60 citations
Article Tier 2

Utilization of chicken eggshell and chitosan as coagulants for microplastic removal from aquatic system

This study tested chicken eggshell powder and chitosan as natural coagulants for removing microplastics from water, finding that both materials effectively aggregated plastic particles and settled them from suspension, offering low-cost and biodegradable alternatives to synthetic coagulants.

2023 Journal of Bioresources and Environmental Sciences 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Chitosan Pretreatment to Reduce Microfibers Released From Synthetic Garments During Laundering

Researchers found that pre-treating synthetic garments with chitosan—a natural biopolymer—before washing significantly reduced the number of microfibers released during laundering. Since washing synthetic clothes is one of the largest sources of microplastic pollution in waterways, chitosan treatment could be a practical way to reduce this contamination at the source.

2021 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Application of New Polymer Flocculants in Industrial Wastewater Treatment

This review covers the use of polymer-based flocculants in industrial wastewater treatment, which help remove suspended particles and contaminants. Flocculants are relevant to microplastic removal because they can aggregate small plastic particles to make them easier to filter out of water.

2023 Rocznik Ochrona Środowiska 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Biocompatible materials as a sustainable solution to micro- and nanoplastic remediation and their challenges

This review evaluates biocompatible materials—including chitosan, cellulose, and biopolymers—as sustainable sorbents for removing micro- and nanoplastics from water, highlighting their advantages of biodegradability and low toxicity compared to conventional treatment media.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Article Tier 2

Adsorption of Organic Pollutants from Wastewater Using Chitosan-Based Adsorbents

This review examines how chitosan, a natural material made from shrimp and crab shells, can be used to remove organic pollutants including microplastics from wastewater. Different modified forms of chitosan can effectively absorb a range of contaminants like antibiotics, pesticides, and plastic particles from water. Since chitosan is biodegradable and non-toxic, it offers a sustainable alternative to chemical-based water treatment methods for reducing human exposure to microplastics and other pollutants.

2025 Polymers 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Pathways for Sustainable Adoption of Chitosan-Based Beads in Water Treatment

This review examines pathways for sustainably adopting chitosan-based beads in water treatment, evaluating their sorption capacity for heavy metals, dyes, and emerging contaminants alongside scalability and cost. The authors identify crosslinking chemistry and regeneration protocols as key factors determining practical performance and propose a framework for evaluating readiness for real-world deployment.

2024
Article Tier 2

Utilization of chitosan as a natural coagulant for polyethylene microplastic removal

Scientists tested chitosan, a natural material derived from shellfish, as an eco-friendly way to remove polyethylene microplastics from water. Under the best conditions (pH 6.0 with 100 mg/L of chitosan), the treatment removed 81.5% of microplastics, offering a promising and environmentally safe approach to cleaning microplastic-contaminated water.

2025 Sustainable Chemistry for the Environment 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Chitin and Chitosan in Wastewater Treatment

This review examines how chitosan — a biodegradable material derived from crustacean shells — and its modified nanocomposites can be used to remove microplastics, heavy metals, and pesticides from wastewater. Chitosan-based materials show strong promise as low-cost, eco-friendly water treatment additives, though challenges around mechanical strength and acid stability still need to be overcome before widespread deployment.

2024 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Overlooked role of aged cationic natural organic matter in aquatic microplastics aggregation-sedimentation

Aged cationic chitosan (a natural biopolymer) was found to drive aggregation and sedimentation of both conventional polystyrene and biodegradable PMMA microplastics more effectively than other forms of organic matter, revealing a previously overlooked mechanism for microplastic removal in natural waters.

2025 Water Research 4 citations