Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Effects and applications of surfactants on the release, removal, fate, and transport of microplastics in aquatic ecosystem: a review

Researchers reviewed how surfactants interact with microplastics in aquatic environments, finding that surfactants can modify microplastic surface properties and influence their removal during wastewater treatment processes like filtration, flotation, and coagulation. The study suggests that surfactant concentration is a crucial factor affecting both the transport and the pollutant-carrying capacity of microplastics in water systems.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of the presence of surfactante in the removal of microplastics by electrocoagulation

This study examined how the presence of surfactants in wastewater affects the removal of microplastics by electrocoagulation treatment. Understanding how co-pollutants interact is crucial for designing more effective wastewater treatment systems.

2023 LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Article Tier 2

The Effects of Microplastics on Floc Formation, Nutrient Removal and Settleability in Wastewater Treatment

Researchers investigated how microplastics affect floc formation, nutrient removal, and settleability in wastewater treatment systems, examining the mechanisms by which these ubiquitous anthropogenic pollutants entering via packaging, cosmetics, and other production sectors disrupt activated sludge processes.

2024
Article Tier 2

Understanding and Improving Microplastic Removal during Water Treatment: Impact of Coagulation and Flocculation

Researchers systematically tested coagulation and flocculation for removing microplastics from drinking water, finding that removal efficiency depended strongly on plastic particle size and whether particles had been weathered, with smaller pristine particles being the hardest to remove.

2020 Environmental Science & Technology 424 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic removal in coagulation-flocculation: Optimization through chemometric and morphological insights

Researchers optimized the coagulation-flocculation process — a standard water treatment step where chemicals cause particles to clump and settle — for removing three types of microplastics: polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene. Polystyrene was removed most efficiently, and adjusting pH, coagulant type, and dosage significantly improved removal rates, providing practical guidance for upgrading existing water treatment plants to better capture microplastics.

2026 Journal of Ecological Engineering
Article Tier 2

Recent innovations in microplastics and nanoplastics removal by coagulation technique: Implementations, knowledge gaps and prospects

This review evaluates coagulation, a water treatment technique that uses chemicals to clump particles together for easier removal, as a method for eliminating microplastics and nanoplastics from water. Researchers found that coagulation can effectively remove these plastic particles, especially when combined with other treatment steps, but performance varies based on plastic size, shape, and water chemistry. The study identifies key knowledge gaps and recommends further research to optimize coagulation for real-world microplastic removal.

2023 Water Research 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating theEfficiency of Enhanced Coagulationfor Nanoplastics Removal Using Flow Cytometry

Researchers evaluated the efficiency of enhanced coagulation for removing nanoplastics from water using flow cytometry as a quantification tool, addressing the interconnected challenges of nanoplastic removal and detection in conventional water treatment systems.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

The Effects of Microplastics on Floc Formation, Nutrient Removal and Settleability in Wastewater Treatment

Researchers examined the interactions of microplastics with activated sludge in wastewater treatment plants, investigating effects on floc formation, nutrient removal efficiency, and settleability to understand how microplastic contamination may compromise treatment performance.

2024
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
Article Tier 2

Investigating the Potential of Coagulants to Improve Microplastics Removal in Wastewater and Tap Water

Researchers found that adding coagulants (FeCl3 or Al2(SO4)3) to wastewater and tap water improved microplastic removal, with aluminum sulfate achieving 43% and 62% removal efficiencies respectively, though the high concentrations required suggest that combining coagulants with organic polyelectrolytes could improve practicality.

2025 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

Occurrence and fate of microplastics from wastewater treatment plants assessed by a fluorescence-based protocol

A fluorescence-based protocol was developed to identify and quantify microplastics smaller than 500 micrometers in wastewater treatment plant effluent, improving on traditional methods that miss these smaller particles.

2022 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and nanoplastics removal mechanisms in wastewater treatment plants: A review

This review examines how conventional wastewater treatment plants remove micro- and nanoplastics, and evaluates advanced technologies like membrane filtration and electrocoagulation that could improve removal rates. While existing treatment plants can capture most microplastics, they still release significant quantities into waterways through their enormous discharge volumes. The study highlights that biological treatment steps may also transform microplastics in potentially harmful ways that need further investigation.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 88 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of surfactants on the chemical coagulation of aged microplastics by ultraviolet (UV)

Researchers investigated how two surfactants, LAS and Tween-20, influence the removal efficiency of UV-aged microplastics through chemical coagulation, finding that Tween-20 achieved removal efficiency greater than 90%, providing insights into the interaction between these common wastewater pollutants and the coagulation treatment process.

2024 LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Article Tier 2

Membrane fouling characteristics and mechanisms in coagulation-ultrafiltration process for treating microplastic-containing water

This study investigated how microplastics affect membrane fouling during a common water treatment process that combines coagulation with ultrafiltration. Researchers found that while microplastics initially worsen membrane fouling, adding the right amount of coagulant can actually turn the plastics into an advantage by creating a looser filter cake that improves water flow.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 25 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

Elimination of a Mixture of Microplastics Using Conventional and Detergent-Assisted Coagulation

Researchers tested coagulation as a method to remove microplastics from tap water, evaluating how microplastic type (PE and PVC), water pH, coagulant dose, and microplastic concentration affect removal efficiency, and finding that detergent-assisted coagulation improves performance.

2023 Materials 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Enhancing nano and microplastics destabilization: Synergistic effects of natural mucin and conventional coagulants in water and wastewater treatment

Researchers investigated whether combining jellyfish mucus with conventional water treatment coagulants could improve removal of micro- and nanoplastics from water. The synergistic combination achieved over 90% removal efficiency with settling times under 5 minutes, outperforming either agent alone by leveraging bridging and entrapment mechanisms.

2025 Environmental Technology & Innovation 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Effectiveness of conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants in microplastics removal: Insights from multiple analytical techniques

Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants in removing microplastics across multiple treatment stages, finding removal efficiencies of 70–90% but documenting that billions of particles still pass through in final effluent daily.

2025 Journal of Environmental Sciences 4 citations
Article Tier 2

The influence of coagulation process conditions on theefficiency of microplastic removal in water treatment

Researchers investigated how coagulation process conditions — including coagulant type, pH, and microsand addition — affect the removal of polyethylene, PVC, and textile microfibers from river water, municipal wastewater, laundry effluent, and synthetic matrices. Ferric chloride and polyaluminum chloride both achieved substantial removal, with performance varying significantly by water matrix and microplastic type.

2025 National Repository of Dissertations in Serbia
Article Tier 2

Impact of coagulation characteristics on the aggregation of microplastics in upper-ocean turbulence

This study investigated how coagulation conditions affect microplastic aggregation in water treatment, finding that coagulant type and dose significantly influence floc formation with plastic particles and ultimately removal efficiency.

2024 Advances in Water Resources 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics_Removal

Researchers evaluated the efficiency of a microplastic removal system for synthetic wastewater that combines a chemical treatment process with simple filtration, measuring removal performance across different microplastic types and concentrations.

2025 Open Science Framework
Article Tier 2

Fate of microplastics in the drinking water production

Researchers tracked the fate of microplastics through drinking water treatment processes, finding that conventional treatment steps like coagulation, sedimentation, and filtration removed the majority of microplastics but did not eliminate them entirely.

2022 Water Research 157 citations
Article Tier 2

Title Perniciousness of microplastics in the ocean and electrocoagulation in microplastic removal in effluent treatmentprocess.

This report reviews the environmental harm of ocean microplastics and evaluates electrocoagulation as a wastewater treatment technology for microplastic removal, examining its dissolution, coagulation, and flocculation mechanisms and the factors affecting its efficiency.

2024 Science and Technology of Engineering Chemistry and Environmental Protection
Article Tier 2

Microplastics’ Shape and Morphology Analysis in the Presence of Natural Organic Matter Using Flow Imaging Microscopy

Researchers introduced an innovative flow imaging microscopy approach for rapidly identifying and quantifying microplastics in wastewater treatment plant samples. The study demonstrates that this method can simultaneously capture and classify polyethylene and polystyrene particles while also analyzing how natural organic matter affects microplastic shape and morphology.

2023 Molecules 11 citations