Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Removal of Micro/Nano-Plastics from Water by Flotation Technology: A Review

This review covers flotation technology as a method for removing micro- and nanoplastics from water, explaining how dissolved air flotation, electroflotation, and froth flotation work to separate plastic particles. The authors assess performance data across particle sizes and polymer types and identify remaining challenges for scaling these approaches.

2025 JORDANIAN JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES (JJECI)
Article Tier 2

Modelling and application of dissolved air flotation for efficient separation of microplastics from sludges and sediments

Researchers developed and tested predictive models for dissolved air flotation (DAF) — a process that uses tiny air bubbles to lift particles out of water — to more efficiently remove microplastics from industrial sludge and sediments. The models accurately predicted how different plastic types, sizes, and shapes attach to air bubbles, enabling better design of microplastic removal systems at industrial scale.

2024 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Is froth flotation a potential scheme for microplastics removal? Analysis on flotation kinetics and surface characteristics

This study evaluated froth flotation as a method for removing microplastics from water, finding that surface hydrophobicity governs flotation efficiency and that the technique shows promise as a scalable treatment option for certain polymer types.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 76 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of Microplastic From Liquid Medium By Dissolved Air Flotation

Researchers tested dissolved air flotation (DAF) as a technique for removing PVC microplastics from water, conducting flotation tests with coagulant dosage optimization using a suspension of 400 mg/L PVC particles in water supply.

2024 Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental
Article Tier 2

Enhanced flotation removal of polystyrene nanoplastics by chitosan modification: Performance and mechanism

Researchers improved removal of polystyrene nanoplastics from water using chitosan-modified air flotation, boosting removal efficiency from 3.1% to 96.7% by exploiting electrostatic attraction, enhanced hydrophobicity, and bridging adsorption to cause nanoplastics to aggregate into large, buoyant flocs.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 17 citations
Article Tier 2

The effects of ultraviolet irradiation treatment on the surface properties of microplastics

UV irradiation was used to modify microplastic surface properties, making them more hydrophilic, which improved flotation efficiency — a water treatment technique that relies on particle hydrophobicity — demonstrating a pretreatment approach to enhance MP removal from water.

2025 IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science
Article Tier 2

Determinação de condições operacionais de um processo de flotação por ar dissolvido para tratamento de água

Researchers determined operational conditions for a dissolved air flotation (DAF) process for water treatment, testing how key parameters affect removal of suspended inorganic and organic matter. The study optimized DAF settings to improve water quality to levels suitable for human or industrial use, with relevance to treating waters that may contain microplastics.

2025
Article Tier 2

Advanced nanobubble flotation for enhanced removal of sub-10 µm microplastics from wastewater

Scientists developed a nanobubble-assisted flotation technique that improves removal of very small microplastics (under 10 micrometers) from wastewater by up to 17% compared to traditional methods. Removing these tiny particles is especially important because their small size makes them more likely to pass through water treatment and eventually be consumed by humans.

2024 Nature Communications 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhanced microplastic removal using a mini-hydrocyclone with microbubbles

Researchers improved microplastic separation from water by combining mini-hydrocyclones with microbubble injection, finding that the microbubbles reduced apparent microplastic density and substantially improved separation efficiency for particles with densities similar to water.

2025 Water Research
Article Tier 2

Enrichment of microplastic pollution by micro-nanobubbles

Researchers investigated micro-nanobubbles as a novel technique for concentrating and removing microplastic pollution from water, finding that bubble-particle interactions can significantly enrich microplastic concentrations and offer a promising avenue for remediation.

2022 Chinese Physics B 5 citations
Article Tier 2

CFD Simulation of DAF processing for removal microplastic in different flotation solution

Researchers used computational fluid dynamics to simulate dissolved air flotation (DAF) for removing microplastics from various wastewater types. The simulations showed that optimal bubble-to-particle ratios and flow conditions significantly improved removal efficiency, providing a design framework for scaling up DAF in water treatment systems.

2025 Water Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Numerical study on the mechanism of microplastic separation from water by cyclonic air flotation

This numerical study modeled the separation of microplastics from water using cyclone separators, optimizing design parameters and flow conditions to improve removal efficiency across different particle sizes and densities.

2024 Water Research 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Treatment technologies for the removal of micro plastics from aqueous medium

Researchers reviewed treatment technologies for removing microplastics from water, finding that while multiple methods including filtration, membrane processes, and coagulation show promise, their effectiveness depends on microplastic size, type, and concentration.

2022 AIP conference proceedings 4 citations
Article Tier 2

The effects of uv-radiation on the removal of microplastics in water using agglomeration-micro-flotation

Researchers investigated how UV radiation affects the surface wettability of six types of microplastics and its influence on removal efficiency via agglomeration-micro-flotation in water. UV treatment altered surface properties of the microplastics, and results showed that the modified wettability affected flotation performance, offering insights into using UV pre-treatment to enhance microplastic removal in water treatment systems.

2024
Article Tier 2

Surface Reactions in Selective Modification: The Prerequisite for Plastic Flotation

This review examines the surface chemistry modifications used in plastic flotation separation, a process that selectively separates mixed plastic waste streams for recycling by exploiting differences in surface hydrophilicity. Improving plastic recycling efficiency through better sorting technology reduces the amount of plastic waste that ultimately degrades into environmental microplastics.

2020 Environmental Science & Technology 57 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of microplastic surface interactions in water and potential capturing methods

This review examines how microplastics behave as colloidal particles in water, generating surface charges that drive interactions with other contaminants and environmental constituents. The study explains that classical colloidal theory can help predict microplastic behavior, and that surface modifications from environmental exposure influence how these particles interact in water systems. Several removal techniques including coagulation, filtration, and air flotation are discussed as potential methods for capturing microplastics in water treatment.

2023 Water Science and Engineering 50 citations
Article Tier 2

Simultaneous monitoring of flow patterns, and bubble, and plastics micro-particle characteristics in Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF)

Researchers used a lab-scale dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank to simultaneously track microbubbles and microplastic particles, finding that particle dynamics and flow regimes within the tank significantly influenced removal performance. The study offers insights for optimizing DAF water treatment systems to better capture microplastics during drinking water or wastewater processing.

2023 Process Safety and Environmental Protection 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Surface change of microplastics in aquatic environment and the removal by froth flotation assisted with cationic and anionic surfactants

This study found that microplastics become less water-repellent after months of sitting in natural river water due to surface weathering and mineral buildup, which makes them harder to remove by flotation methods. The researchers then showed that adding surfactants (soap-like chemicals) could restore the microplastics' water-repellent properties and make flotation effective again. This work advances practical methods for cleaning microplastics out of contaminated water.

2023 Water Research 98 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of UV-degraded microplastics on Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) removal

Polypropylene and polystyrene microplastics subjected to 30 days of UVC irradiation showed altered surface properties and reduced removal efficiency in dissolved air flotation (DAF) water treatment, with UV-degraded microplastics presenting greater challenges for conventional water treatment processes than pristine particles.

2025 E3S Web of Conferences
Article Tier 2

Removal of microplastics from wastewater through electrocoagulation-electroflotation and membrane filtration processes

Researchers investigated electrocoagulation-electroflotation and membrane filtration for removing microplastics from wastewater, finding that combining these processes effectively recovers microplastic particles from treatment plant effluent.

2021 Water Science & Technology 149 citations