Microplastics Removal by IMS Efficient Compared To Other Methods

Several research works have proven that a waste treatment plant is essential to expel several emerging pollutants, including microplastics, into the environment. Among them, the fast-developing membrane technology is a potential treatment method for removing various pollutants in the wastewater treatment process.

For NH4+-N, COD, organic pollutants, bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes, membrane technology works with a great removal rate. The integrated membrane system (IMS) technology for reusing reclaimed water has gained huge attention with the water resources shortage and water pollution.

Could the wastewater treatment plant avoid the microplastics from getting into the marine environment, and what is the outcome of microplastics in the IMS system used for water recovery?

The fate of microplastics in conventional activated sludge system (CAS) and IMS system in a coastal reclaimed water plant was systematically examined by Prof. Jian Lu and Dr. Ying Cai from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their team members to answer the above-mentioned questions.

Their study found that the IMS system can stop most microplastics from entering the marine environment and transform the wastewater into renewable water, eventually reducing ocean pollution and resolving the water resources shortage. This study was published online in  Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering  in 2022.

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Taxonomy

• Micropollutants
• plastic debris
• microplastics