Abstract
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are one of the major vectors of microplastics (MPs) pollution for the recipient water bodies. Therefore, the recovery of MPs from WWTPs is extremely important for decreasing their accumulation and impact in aquatic systems. In this present study, the electrocoagulation-electroflotation (EC/EF) and membrane filtration processes were investigated in removing MPs from wastewaters. The effectiveness of different electrode combinations (Fe-Al and Al-Fe), current density (10-20 A/m2), pH (4.0-10.0) and operating times (0-120 min) on the removal of two different polymer particles in water were investigated to obtain maximum treatment efficiency. The effect of pressure (1-3 bar) on membrane filtration removal efficiency was also investigated. The maximum removal efficiencies were obtained as 100% for both polymer types with electrode combination of Al-Fe, initial pH of 7, current density of 20 A/m2 and reaction time of 10 min. The membrane filtration method also displayed a 100% removal efficiency. In addition, these laboratory-scale results were compared with the one-year average data of a plant treating with real-scale membranes. The results indicated that the proposed processes supplied maximum removal efficiency (100%) compared to conventional secondary and tertiary treatment methods (2-81.6%) in the removal of microplastics.
Highlights
Annual global plastics production has reached over 359 million tons in 2018 (Shen et al 2019) and it is estimated that a conservative value of 13 million tons of plastics per year is discharged into large water bodies ( Jambeck et al 2015)
The present study focused on investigating microplastic removal efficiencies of electrocoagulation-electroflotation and membrane filtration processes as complementary to secondary/tertiary treatment methods
According to the particle counter results, the number of microplastics was reduced to zero which means 100% removal efficiency was achieved with the usage of Al-Fe electrodes (Figure 4)
Summary
Annual global plastics production has reached over 359 million tons in 2018 (Shen et al 2019) and it is estimated that a conservative value of 13 million tons of plastics per year is discharged into large water bodies ( Jambeck et al 2015). Microplastics (MPs) can be classified as primary and secondary, depending on the source (Rajala et al 2020). They can be in a variety of shapes and materials (Alimi et al 2018). MPs have been found in more than 600 species of organisms (Toussaint et al 2019), in human food such table salt (Peixoto et al 2019), beer (Kosuth et al 2018) and drinking water (Mason et al 2018) on all continents including the Americas (McEachern et al 2019), Antarctica (Bessa et al 2019), Europe (Sadri & Thompson 2014), and Asia (Sarkar et al 2019). The adverse effects of MPs are well documented on a diverse array of marine organisms (Wright et al 2013; Güven et al 2017; Iṡ inibilir Okyar et al 2020; Svetlichny et al 2021)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
