Feasibility of rapid gravity filtration and membrane ultrafiltration for the removal of microplastics and microlitter in sewage and wastewater from plastic industry
[EN] Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) act as barriers in reducing uncontrolled microplastic and microlitter (MP-ML) emissions from both urban and industrial wastewaters. Despite removing most of the MP-ML, large quantities of this waste still enter the environment through WWTP effluents, which me...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) |
| Repositorio: | RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/202852 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/202852 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Microlitter Microplastics Rapid filtration Ultrafiltration Wastewater 06.- Garantizar la disponibilidad y la gestión sostenible del agua y el saneamiento para todos |
| Sumario: | [EN] Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) act as barriers in reducing uncontrolled microplastic and microlitter (MP-ML) emissions from both urban and industrial wastewaters. Despite removing most of the MP-ML, large quantities of this waste still enter the environment through WWTP effluents, which means further post-treatment technologies are needed. This study contains a technical evaluation of MP-ML removal from urban wastewater (UWW) and from the wastewater from the recycling plastic industry (PIWW) using two different pilot-scale post-treatment systems: rapid gravity filtration (RGF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. The MP-ML mass concentrations contained in UWW and PIWW were measured by a simplified method adapted for the long-term monitoring of WWTP operations. The method was validated on standard samples. Despite the RGF system consumed less energy than UF treating UWW (0.097 kWh·m-3 and 0.156 kWh·m-3, respectively), RGF was not efficient enough to properly decrease the risk of MP-ML emissions (39.5 ± 34.6% of MP-ML removal). With respect to PIWW, the energy consumption of the UF plant decreased up to 0.059 kWh·m-3. The combination of RGF and UF technologies was expected to reduce membrane fouling but it did not show significant differences in the mid-term operation. |
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