An Innovative Sorption Technology for Removing Microplastics from Wastewater

0569558 - ÚCHP 2024 RIV CH eng J - Journal Article
Spáčilová, Markéta - Dytrych, Pavel - Lexa, M. - Wimmerová, L. - Mašín, P. - Kvaček, R. - Šolcová, Olga
An Innovative Sorption Technology for Removing Microplastics from Wastewater.
Water. Roč. 15, MAR 2023 (2023), č. článku 892. E-ISSN 2073-4441
R&D Projects: GA MPO(CZ) FV40126
Institutional support: RVO:67985858
Keywords : microplastics * water treatment * sorption
OECD category: Chemical process engineering
Impact factor: 3.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/5/892/review_report

This study is focused on technology development for microplastic removal from wastewater using a sorption process, which would be suitable not only as a tertiary stage of purification in wastewater treatment plants but also for other waters, e.g., process water and surface water. Therefore, cheap natural materials such as zeolites and bentonites were tested as possible sorbents. This study aims not only at sorbent selection but also at their possible modification by a special water regime improving sorption efficiency and lifetime. Microplastic particles of the majority of common types of plastics were prepared by a newly developed abrasion technique from various plastic items used at home, thus microplastic particle sizes and shapes corresponded to the real microplastics found in waters. Based on results with high reproducibility, a novel method for microplastic characterization based on Raman spectroscopy in combination with SEM/EDX was developed. The removal of microplastics from waste water was tested not only at the laboratory scale but also in a developed semi-operational sorption unit at a real wastewater treatment plant throughout the year with the efficiency of over 90%.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0340932