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A novel method for extraction of polypropylene microplastics in swine manure

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Abstract

With the development of modern industry and agriculture, plentiful microplastics (MPs) were produced as a result of the abuse of plastic. The widespread presence of MPs in soils has caused coastal ecological environment pollution. Previous research has shown that fertilizer is one pathway for the entry of MPs into agricultural soils. Meanwhile, livestock manure is a major fertilizer for crops, and the application of livestock manure compost creates a potential pathway for MPs to enter soils. Thus, MPs may exist in livestock manure from the process of livestock breeding and ultimately contaminate agricultural soils. Based on the increasing attention to MP pollution, manure-born MPs will attract more interest in the future. Thus, the present study compares the extraction effects of centrifugation with fractional distillation, and an improved method is introduced to extract polypropylene (PP) from different types of swine manure. The numbers of particles and fibers were determined using a camera (MS60) connected to a stereomicroscope (Mshot MZ62), and the results showed that the recovery rate of plastic particles in swine manure based on different added numbers ranged from 71.43% ± 8.36 to 96.67% ± 3.33 with the centrifugation method, and only 31.11% ± 10.56 to 43.33% ± 12.56 using fractional distilling. The recovery rate for fibers was generally higher than for particles, especially using centrifugation, and ranged from 95.67% ± 1.58 to 100% ± 0, while the rate of fiber recovery using fractional distillation ranged from 39.44% ± 10.66 to 39.44 ± 10.66. The results of recovery rates using the two methods show that the effect of extraction by centrifugation is superior to the method of fractional distillation, with a recovery rate of approximately 100% for fibers and 90% for particles. The recovery number of microplastics evaluated with a line regression model was acceptable.

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Abbreviations

MPs:

microplastics

PE:

polyethylene

PP:

polypropylene

TOC:

total organic carbon

TN:

total nitrogen

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Acknowledgments

We thank professor Yin-Bao Wu for providing swine manure for the study.

Funding

This study was funded by the Guangdong Technological Innovation Strategy of Special Funds (Key Areas of Research and Development Program, Grant No. 2018B020205003).

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Author notes

  1. Rui-Ting Wu and Ying-Feng Cai contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, China

    Rui-Ting Wu, Ying-Feng Cai, Si-Cheng Xing, Yi-Wen Yang, Jian-Dui Mi & Xin-Di Liao

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, and Key Laboratory of Chicken Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry Agriculture, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, China

    Si-Cheng Xing, Jian-Dui Mi & Xin-Di Liao

  3. National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Livestock Breeding, Guangzhou, 510642, Guangdong, China

    Si-Cheng Xing, Jian-Dui Mi & Xin-Di Liao

Authors
  1. Rui-Ting Wu
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  2. Ying-Feng Cai
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  3. Si-Cheng Xing
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  4. Yi-Wen Yang
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  5. Jian-Dui Mi
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Si-Cheng Xing, Xin-Di Liao. Methodology: Rui-Ting Wu, Ying-Feng Cai. Formal analysis and investigation: Rui-Ting Wu, Ying-Feng Cai. Writing—original draft preparation: Rui-Ting Wu, Ying-Feng Cai. Writing—review and editing: Rui-Ting-Wu, Si-Cheng Xing, Yi-Wen Yang. Funding acquisition: Xin-Di Liao; Resources: Xin-Di Liao, Jian-Dui Mi. Supervision: Xin-Di Liao, Jian-Dui Mi. All authors have seen and approved the final version submitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xin-Di Liao.

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Wu, RT., Cai, YF., Xing, SC. et al. A novel method for extraction of polypropylene microplastics in swine manure. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 13021–13030 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11111-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11111-5

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