Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Inhibition of aged microplastics and leachates on methane production from anaerobic digestion of sludge and identification of key components

Researchers investigated the effects of aged microplastics and their leachates on sludge anaerobic digestion, finding that aged PVC and PET significantly inhibited methane production, with phthalate esters and bisphenol A identified as key inhibitory components.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 55 citations
Article Tier 2

Polyvinyl Chloride Microplastics Affect Methane Production from the Anaerobic Digestion of Waste Activated Sludge through Leaching Toxic Bisphenol-A

PVC microplastics were added to anaerobic sludge digestion systems at concentrations of 10–60 particles/g, finding that low concentrations (10 particles/g) slightly increased methane production (+5.9%) while higher concentrations inhibited it by up to 24.2%, with inhibition linked to bisphenol-A leaching from PVC. The study reveals a non-linear dose-dependent effect of PVC microplastics on biogas production in wastewater treatment.

2019 Environmental Science & Technology 426 citations
Article Tier 2

Revealing the Mechanisms of Polyethylene Microplastics Affecting Anaerobic Digestion of Waste Activated Sludge

Researchers studied how polyethylene microplastics affect the anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge, a common wastewater treatment process. They found that higher concentrations of microplastics significantly reduced methane production by disrupting microbial communities and enzyme activities essential for digestion. The study reveals that microplastic contamination in wastewater systems can undermine the efficiency of sludge treatment and biogas generation.

2019 Environmental Science & Technology 351 citations
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the role of polystyrene microplastics in waste activated sludge anaerobic digestion: Changes of organics transformation, microbial community and metabolic pathway

Researchers found that polystyrene microplastics in sewage sludge affected the anaerobic digestion process used to treat waste, with low concentrations slightly boosting methane production but high concentrations reducing it by up to 11%. The microplastics disrupted key bacterial communities and enzyme activities needed for proper waste breakdown. This matters because wastewater treatment plants handle enormous volumes of microplastic-laden sludge, and impaired digestion could reduce treatment effectiveness and release more pollutants into the environment.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Thermal hydrolysis alleviates polyethylene microplastic-induced stress in anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge

Scientists found that pretreating waste sludge with heat before anaerobic digestion reduced the negative effects that polyethylene microplastics have on the process. The thermal treatment improved methane production and helped maintain healthy microbial communities even in the presence of microplastics. The study suggests that thermal hydrolysis could be a practical strategy for wastewater treatment plants dealing with microplastic-contaminated sludge.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluation the impact of polystyrene micro and nanoplastics on the methane generation by anaerobic digestion

Researchers tested the effect of polystyrene microplastics and their leached chemical additives on anaerobic digestion systems, finding that microplastic presence reduced methane generation efficiency and disrupted microbial community function.

2020 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 102 citations
Article Tier 2

New Horizons in Micro/Nanoplastic-Induced Oxidative Stress: Overlooked Free Radical Contributions and Microbial Metabolic Dysregulations in Anaerobic Digestion

Researchers found that polypropylene micro- and nanoplastics generate persistent free radicals that produce harmful reactive oxygen species, reducing the effectiveness of anaerobic digestion (a common waste treatment process) by up to 50%. This means microplastic contamination could undermine waste treatment systems, potentially allowing more pollutants to reach waterways and increase human exposure.

2024 Environmental Science & Technology 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding and mitigating the distinctive stresses induced by diverse microplastics on anaerobic hydrogen-producing granular sludge

Researchers compared how polyethylene, PET, and PVC microplastics differentially stress anaerobic hydrogen-producing granular sludge, finding that PVC caused the greatest inhibition of hydrogen production (reduced to 66.6% of control) due to its more toxic leachates. Adding biochar to the sludge mitigated MP-induced inhibition by adsorbing leached chemicals, restoring hydrogen production efficiency.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Beyond simple inhibition: Unveiling the non-monotonic impact and multi-level mechanisms of aged microplastics on sludge anaerobic digestion

Researchers used plasma treatment to precisely control polypropylene microplastic aging and tested its effects on anaerobic sludge digestion, finding that while unaged microplastics strongly inhibited methane production, optimally aged microplastics at a carbonyl index of 0.219 recovered methane yield to 83%.

2025 Water Research 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Size-dependent effects of polystyrene microplastics on anaerobic digestion performance of food waste: Focusing on oxidative stress, microbial community, key metabolic functions

Researchers investigated how polystyrene microplastics of different sizes affect anaerobic digestion of food waste and found that smaller particles caused greater inhibition of methane production, with reductions up to 33%. The study suggests that small microplastics induce more oxidative stress in microbial communities and suppress key enzymes involved in methane-producing metabolic pathways.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 65 citations
Article Tier 2

Revealing How Polyvinyl Chloride Microplastic Physicochemically Affect the Anaerobic Digestion of Waste Activated Sludge

PVC microplastics in sewage sludge change the surface chemistry of sludge flocs, raising the energy barrier between sludge and the microbes that break it down and causing microbial communities to reorganise. At low concentrations PVC initially increases contact efficiency, but at higher concentrations it coats sludge surfaces and blocks microbial access, ultimately reducing methane production in anaerobic digesters — a finding relevant to the performance and safety of wastewater treatment plants receiving plastic-contaminated sludge.

2023 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Micro(nano)plastics on Anaerobic Digestion and Their Influencing Mechanisms

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.

2025 Microorganisms 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Potential of Ozonation to Reduce Impact of Waste Sludge-Entrapped Microplastics to Biogas Production

Wastewater treatment plants concentrate microplastics from sewage into the resulting sludge, and this study tested whether ozonation could reduce the harm those microplastics cause during anaerobic digestion used to produce biogas. The findings showed that PET and polypropylene microplastics alter methane yields from sludge digestion in concentration-dependent ways, and that ozone pretreatment partially mitigates the inhibition caused by polypropylene — though the interactions are complex and require further optimization before widespread use.

2024 Ozone Science and Engineering 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in sewage sludge destined to anaerobic digestion: The potential role of thermal pretreatment

Researchers found that thermal pretreatment of sewage sludge at 120°C did not degrade conventional PET microplastics but did alter biodegradable microplastics, which also boosted methane production during anaerobic digestion, raising concerns about how different microplastic types behave in sludge treatment.

2022 Chemosphere 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Thermally aged PET microplastics disrupt methanogenic syntrophy via toxic leachates: Microbial assembly dynamics unravel biotoxicity in anaerobic digestion

Researchers found that thermally aged PET microplastics disrupted methane production during anaerobic digestion more severely than pristine microplastics. The aging process increased reactive oxygen species levels and released toxic chemical compounds that interfered with the microbial communities responsible for biogas production, with longer aging periods causing greater inhibition of methane upgrading.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Exposure to polystyrene nanoplastic leads to inhibition of anaerobic digestion system

Researchers showed that polystyrene nanoplastics inhibit methane production in sewage sludge digesters in a concentration-dependent manner, reducing methane yield by up to 14% and delaying the process start-up while shifting microbial community composition away from key methane-producing archaea.

2017 The Science of The Total Environment 212 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial and physicochemical responses of anaerobic hydrogen-producing granular sludge to polyethylene micro(nano)plastics

Researchers found that polyethylene micro- and nanoplastics disrupted anaerobic hydrogen-producing granular sludge in a concentration- and size-dependent manner, inhibiting microbial activity and altering community structure, with nanoplastics causing greater harm than larger microplastic particles.

2022 Water Research 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of microplastic on anaerobic digestion of wasted activated sludge

This study investigated how varying doses of microplastics affect methane production during anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge, testing concentrations from 0 to 100,000 particles per gram. Higher microplastic doses progressively inhibited methane production, suggesting that high microplastic loads in wastewater treatment sludge can impair biogas recovery.

2020 Chemosphere 147 citations
Article Tier 2

Unraveling synergistic cascade inhibition of methane production in anaerobic digestion system by polyethylene microplastics and domestic sewage: Physical adsorption, metabolic disruption, and microbial community decoupling

Researchers systematically explored how the co-presence of polyethylene microplastics and domestic sewage inhibits methane production in anaerobic digestion systems, finding that physical adsorption of microplastics, propionic acid accumulation, and microbial community decoupling identified via multi-omics analysis collectively suppressed cumulative CH4 production by 41.8% compared to controls.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Impact of micro-nanoplastics on biochemical phases of anaerobic digestion in sewage sludge treatment: mechanistic insights and future prospects

Micro- and nanoplastics were found to disrupt the biochemical phases of anaerobic digestion, affecting the efficiency of the biological process used to treat organic waste. Understanding these impacts is important because anaerobic digestion is a common wastewater and sludge treatment method that may both receive and process microplastic-contaminated materials.

2025 International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Resilience and functional redundancy of methanogenic digestion microbiome safeguard recovery of methanogenesis activity under the stress induced by microplastics

Researchers studied how microplastics and nanoplastics affect the microbiome responsible for methane production during anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge. The study found that while plastic particles initially disrupted methanogenesis, the microbial community showed resilience and functional redundancy that allowed methane production to recover over time.

2023 mLife 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of alkaline thermal hydrolysis on anaerobic digestion of mixed sludge contaminated with microplastics

Researchers tested alkaline thermal hydrolysis pretreatment on sludge containing polyethylene and PVC microplastics before anaerobic digestion, finding that the pretreatment altered how microplastics affected subsequent methane production, with effects varying by polymer type and concentration.

2025 Journal of Water Process Engineering
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the role of microplastic size on anaerobic sludge digestion: Changes of dissolved organic matter, leaching compounds and microbial community

Researchers found that microplastic particle size significantly influences dissolved organic matter composition, leaching of additives, and microbial community structure during anaerobic sludge digestion, with smaller PVC microplastics causing greater disruption to the digestion process.

2022 Environmental Research 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the inhibition mechanisms of microplastics on the full-stage sludge anaerobic digestion via enrichment to anaerobic microbes and toxicity of released compounds

This study found that microplastics in sewage sludge significantly interfere with the waste treatment process by reducing the activity of key microorganisms needed to break down waste. More than half of the negative effect came from toxic chemicals released when microplastic particles rub against sludge, and the disrupted treatment also increased the risk of spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 21 citations