Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) have been widely detected in drinking water sources and tap water, raising the concern of the effectiveness of drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in protecting the public from exposure to MPs through drinking water. We collected and analyzed the available research articles up to August 2021 on MPs in drinking water treatment (DWT), including laboratory- and full-scale studies. This article summarizes the major MP compositions (materials, sizes, shapes, and concentrations) in drinking water sources, and critically reviews the removal efficiency and impacts of MPs in various drinking water treatment processes. The discussed drinking water treatment processes include coagulation-flocculation (CF), membrane filtration, sand filtration, and granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Current DWT processes that are purposed for particle removal are generally effective in reducing MPs in water. Various influential factors to MP removal are discussed, such as coagulant type and dose, MP material, shape and size, and water quality. It is anticipated that better MP removal can be achieved by optimizing the treatment conditions. Moreover, the article framed the major challenges and future research directions on MPs and nanoplastics (NPs) in DWT.
Highlights
Microplastics (MPs) are an urgent issue due to their ubiquity and potential adverse impacts on the environment and human health (Wright and Kelly, 2017; Asmonaite et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2020)
These preliminary yet valuable reviews have indicated that 1) drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) are critical in protecting the public from MP exposure; 2) conventional drinking water treatment (DWT) processes are potential for MP removal; and 3) more investigation is needed in the efficiency of different DWT processes in removing MPs
There are very limited studies published on MPs in DWT, the preliminary findings have indicated that the typical DWT trains, including the basic media filtration series, CFS-sand filtration, and CFS-sand filtration-ozonation-granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration, are effective in reducing the concentration of MPs in drinking water
Summary
Microplastics (MPs) are an urgent issue due to their ubiquity and potential adverse impacts on the environment and human health (Wright and Kelly, 2017; Asmonaite et al, 2018; Zhang et al, 2020). Due to the limited pertinent studies, these previous reviews had to derive discussions and conclusions extensively from studies that were focused on MPs in surface water bodies and wastewater treatment (Enfrin et al, 2019; Novotna et al, 2019; Barchiesi et al, 2020; Shen et al, 2020; Cheng et al, 2021; Ding et al, 2021; Rodríguez-Narvaez et al, 2021; Xu et al, 2021) These preliminary yet valuable reviews have indicated that 1) DWTPs are critical in protecting the public from MP exposure; 2) conventional DWT processes are potential for MP removal; and 3) more investigation is needed in the efficiency of different DWT processes in removing MPs. To date, in-depth review discussions on the effects of treatment conditions (such as coagulant type and dose) and the properties of MPs on the removal of MPs remain rare. The objectives of this review are: 1) to summarize the MP compositions in DWT in terms of material, size, and shape; 2) to summarize the MP removal efficiencies by a number of DWT processes, such as CF, membrane filtration, and media filtration; 3) to explore the influential factors to MP removal in DWT; and 4) to identify the challenges and research opportunities regarding MPs in DWT
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