A new thermoanalytical method for the quantification of microplastics in industrial wastewater

Mallow, Ole; Spacek, Stefan; Schwarzböck, Therese; Fellner, Johann; Rechberger, Helmut

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113862

Cited by 36 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The presence of industrial wastewater can influence the characteristics of the inflow to a WWTP, especially in terms of polymers abundance, morphology and variety [70,84]. The specific contribution of industrial effluents to the WWTPs in terms of MPs could hence be considered of importance, although not yet defined precisely in its quantity nor quality [88]. Therefore, it is relevant to define the characteristics of the industrial contribution to MPs inflow to WWTPs, for a better choice of the remediation strategies.…”

Section: Influent To Wwtpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence and fate of microplastics in the water sources: focus on the role of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants

Barchiesi

Chiavola

Marcantonio

et al. 2021

Journal of Water Process Engineering

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Microplastics are nowadays considered as ubiquitous pollutants since have been found widespread in all environmental compartments, particularly in the water sources. In the urban water cycle, the drinking water treatment plants and the wastewater treatment plants are the first and last barriers to microplastics pollution, respectively. The present work aims at presenting the information available on microplastic presence in the urban water cycle, reporting and linking what is known at the different stages. Focus is on the water sources and on the role of the water treatment plants as source and control of microplastics pollution. Aspects evaluated are microplastics abundance, characterization in terms of morphology, size and polymer composition, spatial and temporal variations, factors influencing their distribution and abundance, effects of treatments on their removal. Up to now there is no common framework for microplastics collection, sample pre-treatment, identification, quantification and classification. Data comparison is hindered due to the various analytical protocols implemented; hence the conclusions driven are mostly indicative or of very local significance. The available information is not evenly distributed among the urban water cycle components. For the establishment of proper microplastics pollution control strategies, the relative role of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants needs to be better deepened in terms of both quantity and quality effects. All these aspects are afforded in the present review which is based on the more recent data published by the specialized literature.

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Section: Influent To Wwtpsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence and fate of microplastics in the water sources: focus on the role of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants

Barchiesi

Chiavola

Marcantonio

et al. 2021

Journal of Water Process Engineering

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“…After filtration, the MPs are analyzed by the conventional techniques used for solids samples, such as the non-destructive micro-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy [46,48] and the attenuated total reflectance FTIR spectroscopy [49], Raman [50] and micro-Raman [51] measurements, thermoanalytical techniques such as the pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS) [33,52], or the differential scanning calorimetry and the thermogravimetric analysis [53,54], in order to describe the chemical compositions of the plastics and their glass transition temperatures. The observation by conventional optical microscopy [46] or fluorescence microscopy [55] allows to describe their color, shape, and size, while by scanning electron microscopy the description of the morphology and of the microsize [21,53] is performed and porosimetry allows to determine the changes in the specific surface area [53,56].…”

Section: Methodical Procedures Of Mps Detection In Sewage Sludgementioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in Sewage Sludge: A Known but Underrated Pathway in Wastewater Treatment Plants

et al. 2021

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Interest in the presence of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater has grown significantly in recent years. In fact, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent the last barrier before the discharge of MPs into an aquatic ecosystem. The research has highlighted how MPs are in part effectively removed from the waters and accumulated inside the sewage sludge (SeS) produced by the WWTP, being a cause for concern, especially in the case of agricultural reuse. This work aims to analyze the existing literature on the (i) methodical procedure for MPs analysis (thermal, spectroscopic, optical analyses), (ii) qualitative and quantitative presence of MPs in SeS, (iii) effect on sludge properties, and (iv) the possible accumulation in amended soils. Based on the results already obtained in the literature, this work aims to provide critical insights to stimulate interest in the topic and direct future research on aspects that should be deepened. In particular, it emerges that there is a clear need for standardization of the collection methods and the analytical techniques for identifying and quantifying MPs, since their physico-chemical characterization and the study on aging and on the response towards acid or basic pre-treatments are fundamental for the understanding of microplastics ecotoxicological potential.

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“…Analytical methods for chemical characterization of isolated microplastics in WWTPs mainly include nondestructive spectroscopic techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) or μ-FTIR (Murphy et al 2016;Ziajahromi et al 2017;Bayo et al 2020a) and Raman or μ-Raman spectroscopy (Cole et al 2013;Gündoğdu et al 2018;Lares et al 2018). Destructive techniques, such as gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS), with pyrolysis or thermal desorption (Fries et al 2013;Nuelle et al 2014;Elert et al 2017) or liquid extraction with subsequent size exclusion chromatography (SEC) (Elert et al 2017), have been reported for marine samples, soils, and other environmental substrates, although Mallow et al (2020) report the use of a new thermoanalytical method for the analysis of microplastics in industrial wastewater.…”

Section: Polymer Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater

Bayo¹,

Olmos²,

López-Castellanos³

2020

Handbook of Microplastics in the Environment

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This chapter presents a summary of the main characteristics of sewage treatment plants as sink and source of microplastics to the environment, the sampling procedure and isolation and analytical techniques, as well as removal rates and the best available technologies for their removal. Despite being a barrier, wastewater treatment plants have proved to be an important source of microplastics into the environment, both from treated effluent and the application of sludges in agricultural soils. We discuss about sampling collection methodologies, further pretreatment processes and density separation of microplastics by means of different salt solutions. Visual identification coupled to a spectroscopic technique seems to be essential in order not to under-or overestimate the microplastic content. Concentration of microplastics in sewage plants has been reported with

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A new thermoanalytical method for the quantification of microplastics in industrial wastewater

Cited by 36 publications

References 44 publications

Presence and fate of microplastics in the water sources: focus on the role of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants

Presence and fate of microplastics in the water sources: focus on the role of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants

Microplastics in Sewage Sludge: A Known but Underrated Pathway in Wastewater Treatment Plants

Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater

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