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Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater

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Handbook of Microplastics in the Environment

Abstract

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 large variations among researchers as well as the polymer types identified, being polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene the most observed ones. It seems the removal rate of microplastics in sewage plants increases with decreasing size, may be because an insufficient hydraulic retention time for the removal of large microplastics, and the number of wastewater treatment stages may affect the final concentration in the effluent. The removal rate for secondary treatment ranges from 64% to 99%, and the implementation of a tertiary process, that is, disc filters, rapid sand filters, dissolved air flotation, or a membrane bioreactor, usually reduces the concentration of microplastics in the final effluent. However, some studies have highlighted the importance of first stages in the sewage treatment plant, as skimming and primary clarifiers, not always reaching a lower microplastic concentration after a tertiary treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Cartagena, Murcia, Spain

    Javier Bayo, Sonia Olmos & Joaquín López-Castellanos

Authors
  1. Javier Bayo
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  2. Sonia Olmos
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  3. Joaquín López-Castellanos
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Correspondence to Javier Bayo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry & CESAM, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Teresa Rocha-Santos

  2. Departamento de Oceanografia, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Mónica Costa

  3. Faculty of Sciences, Université Catholique de L'Ouest, Angers cedex 01, France

    Catherine Mouneyrac

Section Editor information

  1. Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Vigo, Spain

    Juan Santos Echeandia

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Bayo, J., Olmos, S., López-Castellanos, J. (2020). Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater. In: Rocha-Santos, T., Costa, M., Mouneyrac, C. (eds) Handbook of Microplastics in the Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10618-8_33-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10618-8_33-1

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