Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Nature-Based Urban Drainage Solutions Using Industrial Waste-Incorporated Pervious Concrete Pavements

Scientists tested special concrete made with recycled materials like old concrete and ceramic waste to see if it could clean dirty stormwater runoff from city streets. The recycled concrete worked well at filtering out pollution and dirt from the water while staying strong enough for sidewalks and parking lots. This matters because cleaner stormwater means less pollution flowing into rivers and drinking water sources that affect human health.

2026 Water
Article Tier 2

Advancing microplastics remediation in bioretention systems using biochar/kaolin: Optimizing organics removal, plant health, and microbial community dynamics

Researchers tested biochar, kaolin, and a combined kaolin-biochar composite in stormwater filtration columns and found the composite removed up to 97% of microplastics while also improving removal of organic pollutants and supporting beneficial soil bacteria. Adding plants to the system further boosted microplastic capture, pointing toward affordable, nature-friendly water treatment upgrades.

2024 Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of microplastics and metals in biochar beds for stormwater treatment: Effects of prolonged drying and salinity on pollutant mobility

Researchers tested biochar — a charcoal-like material made from organic waste — as a filter for removing microplastics and heavy metals from stormwater runoff, finding it retained up to 99% of microplastics but that prolonged dry periods and high salinity increased the release of metals, highlighting real-world limitations of this promising treatment approach.

2026 Environmental Challenges
Article Tier 2

Innovative bioretention filters effectively remove microplastics from polluted stormwater

Researchers constructed a pilot rain garden facility with 13 bioretention filters incorporating innovative sorbent materials — waste-to-energy bottom ash, biochar, and Sphagnum peat — mixed with sandy loam and planted with salt-tolerant vegetation, then irrigated with stormwater from a highway over 48 months to evaluate microplastic removal efficiency by pyrolysis-GC/MS. They found the bioretention filters effectively removed diverse microplastic polymers from urban stormwater, with all 13 target polymers detected in inflow and variable removal efficiencies across sorbent treatments.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Characterization and microbial mechanism of pollutant removal from stormwater runoff in the composite filler bioretention system

Researchers evaluated a composite filler bioretention system for stormwater runoff treatment, finding that the system effectively removed nutrients, heavy metals, and suspended solids, with microbial community structure playing a key role in pollutant removal mechanisms.

2024 Water Reuse 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Urban stormwater microplastics – Characteristics and removal using a developed filtration system

This Finnish study tested a concrete filtration system with sand and biochar media to remove microplastics from urban stormwater runoff. Both media showed effective removal, with results suggesting that on-site stormwater filtration could be a practical strategy for reducing microplastic inputs to receiving water bodies.

2020 Aaltodoc (Aalto University) 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic pollution risks in bioretention systems: a case study

Researchers investigated plastic pollution in urban stormwater bioretention systems and found these green infrastructure features both accumulate microplastics from road runoff and risk leaching plastic particles into groundwater, raising concerns about their role as pollution pathways.

2022 Environmental Technology 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Contaminants in Urban Stormwater: Barcelona case study

Researchers analyzed contaminants in urban stormwater runoff in Barcelona, examining dissolved organics, metals, nutrients, and microplastics to assess risks to environmental and public health as cities consider stormwater as a potential groundwater recharge source.

2023 Advances in geosciences 8 citations
Article Tier 2

A novel bioreactor system to purify contaminated runoff water

Researchers engineered a low-cost bioreactor system using limestone and bacteria to purify contaminated runoff water in a more environmentally friendly way than conventional chemical treatments. Biological treatment systems could complement physical filtration for removing microplastics and associated contaminants from stormwater.

2021 Journal of Emerging Investigators 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Design and hydrologic performance estimation of highway filter drains using a novel analytical probabilistic model

Researchers developed a new mathematical model to design and evaluate highway filter drains — roadside structures that capture stormwater runoff — without needing lengthy computer simulations. The model accurately predicted real-world drainage performance and could help engineers more efficiently design systems that prevent road pollutants, including microplastic-laden runoff, from reaching waterways.

2024 Scientific Reports 5 citations
Article Tier 2

A brief review on utilizing natural adsorbents for microplastic removal from wastewater: A sustainable approach to environmental protection

Researchers reviewed natural materials like biochar, clay, algae, and agricultural waste as affordable alternatives to synthetic filters for removing microplastics from wastewater, finding some achieved over 80% removal efficiency in the lab, though scaling these methods to real-world treatment systems remains a significant challenge.

2025 Results in Engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

The ability of selected filter materials in removing nutrients, metals, and microplastics from stormwater in biofilter structures

A laboratory experiment tested several filter materials in a biofilter structure for their ability to remove nutrients, metals, total suspended solids, and microplastics from roadside stormwater. The study demonstrated that ecologically based biofilter designs can capture multiple contaminant types from urban runoff.

2021 Journal of Environmental Quality 55 citations
Article Tier 2

Análisis del comportamiento hidráulico y ambiental a largo plazo de pavimentos permeables y de su potencial para el control de microplásticos en la gestión avanzada de escorrentías urbanas

Researchers investigated the long-term hydraulic and environmental performance of permeable pavements for controlling microplastics in urban stormwater runoff, demonstrating their potential to prevent suspended solids and associated microplastic particles from reaching the environment.

2024
Article Tier 2

Evaluation of Biochar as an Amendment for the Removal of Metals, Nutrients, and Microplastics in Bioretention Systems

This study evaluated biochar as an amendment to bioretention soil media for removing metals, nutrients, and microplastics from stormwater runoff. Results showed that biochar improved contaminant removal across all three pollutant classes compared to unamended soil media, supporting its use in green stormwater infrastructure.

2024 Journal of Environmental Engineering 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Rening av dagvatten med en kompakt reningsanläggning

Researchers investigated compact underground stormwater treatment systems as a space-efficient alternative to conventional stormwater ponds in dense urban environments, evaluating their performance in removing pollutants including microplastics from urban runoff.

2025 KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Article Tier 2

Hydraulic behaviour of sand-biochar mixtures in water and wastewater treatment applications

Researchers investigated how mixing biochar — a charcoal-like material made from organic matter — into sand affects the flow of water through filter systems used to treat drinking water and wastewater, including for removing microplastics. By accounting for the unique pore structure inside biochar particles, they significantly improved the accuracy of models predicting how well these filters perform.

2022 Journal of Hydrology 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal and fate of microplastics in permeable pavements: An experimental layer-by-layer analysis

Researchers tested permeable pavements as a way to capture microplastics from urban stormwater runoff and found they retained 89% to over 99% of microplastic particles. The microplastics accumulated mainly on the pavement surface and in geotextile filter layers, preventing them from reaching natural waterways. This type of sustainable urban drainage could be an effective tool for reducing the amount of microplastics that wash off roads and into the water sources people depend on.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 15 citations
Article Tier 2

A Novel Application of Filtration for the Collection of Microplastics in Waterways

Researchers developed a novel filtration system for collecting microplastics from waterways, demonstrating its effectiveness as a scalable and practical tool for environmental monitoring and plastic pollution assessment.

2024 Research Square (Research Square)
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in biochar technology for aquatic pollution control: a critical review of applications, barriers, and future opportunities

Researchers reviewed two decades of research on biochar — a charcoal-like material made from organic waste — as a low-cost tool for removing pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, microplastics, and nutrients from water, achieving up to 80% pollutant removal. While promising, challenges in regeneration and scaling up production remain barriers to widespread use.

2025 Discover Sustainability 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Occurrence and Pathways of Microplastics in Bioretention Filters

Researchers found eleven microplastic polymer types in bioretention filter soil and stormwater samples in an urban setting, characterizing the occurrence and pathways of microplastics entering these green infrastructure systems from contaminated impervious surface runoff.

2025 Environmental Management