Elimination of Microplastics by Downstream Sand Filters in Wastewater Treatment
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Institute for Environmental and Process Engineering, Hochschule RheinMain, University of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 3251, 65022 Wiesbaden, Germany
2
Institute IWAR, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Franziska-Braun-Street 7, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Water 2021, 13(1), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13010033
Received: 16 November 2020
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Revised: 16 December 2020
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Accepted: 22 December 2020
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Published: 27 December 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microplastics and Microfibers in Water and Wastewater: A Grand Challenge)
The elimination of microplastic particles (MPP) and microplastic fibers (MPF) was investigated in the final treatment stage (sand filtration) in two municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and the final treatment stage (sand filtration) at a process WWTP of a manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). At each sampling site, three samples on three different days were taken (before/after sand filtration). The samples were filtered through a 10 μm stainless steel cartridge filter utilizing a stainless steel centrifugal pump. Microplastics (MP) were separated from the wastewater matrix by oxidative treatment and density separation and analyzed by Raman microspectroscopy. Due to precautionary measures, procedural blanks were very low with a mean number of 4.3 ± 2.7 MPP and 0.88 ± 0.56 MPF within eight blank samples. The municipal WWTPs were able to eliminate 99.2% ± 0.29% and 99.4% ± 0.15% of MP in the sand filtration stage. The sand filtration of a PVC manufacturer eliminated 99.2%–99.9%.
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Keywords:
microplastics elimination; sand filter; Raman microspectroscopy; municipal wastewater; industrial wastewater; sample preparation; subsampling
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wolff, S.; Weber, F.; Kerpen, J.; Winklhofer, M.; Engelhart, M.; Barkmann, L. Elimination of Microplastics by Downstream Sand Filters in Wastewater Treatment. Water 2021, 13, 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13010033
AMA Style
Wolff S, Weber F, Kerpen J, Winklhofer M, Engelhart M, Barkmann L. Elimination of Microplastics by Downstream Sand Filters in Wastewater Treatment. Water. 2021; 13(1):33. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13010033
Chicago/Turabian StyleWolff, Sebastian, Felix Weber, Jutta Kerpen, Miriam Winklhofer, Markus Engelhart, and Luisa Barkmann. 2021. "Elimination of Microplastics by Downstream Sand Filters in Wastewater Treatment" Water 13, no. 1: 33. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13010033
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