Fate of microplastics in a coastal wastewater treatment plant: Microfibers could partially break through the integrated membrane system

doi:10.1007/s11783-021-1517-0

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (7) : 96 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1517-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Fate of microplastics in a coastal wastewater treatment plant: Microfibers could partially break through the integrated membrane system

Ying Cai¹, Jun Wu², Jian Lu^1,³(

), Jianhua Wang¹, Cui Zhang¹

¹. CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, YICCAS, Yantai 264003, China
². Yantai Research Institute, Harbin Engineering University, Yantai 264006, China
³. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China

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Abstract

• Fate of microplastics in integrated membrane system for water reuse was investigated.

• Integrated membrane system has high removal efficiency (>98%) for microplastics.

• Microplastics (>93%) were mainly removed through membrane bioreactor treatment.

• Small scale fiber plastics (<200 μm) could break through reverse osmosis (RO) system.

• The flux of microplastics maintained at 2.7 × 10¹¹ MPs/d after the RO treatment.

Rare information on the fate of microplastics in the integrated membrane system (IMS) system in full-scale wastewater treatment plant was available. The fate of microplastics in IMS in a coastal reclaimed water plant was investigated. The removal rate of microplastics in the IMS system reached 93.2% after membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment while that further increased to 98.0% after the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process. The flux of microplastics in MBR effluent was reduced from 1.5 × 10¹³ MPs/d to 10.2 × 10¹¹ MPs/d while that of the RO treatment decreased to 2.7 × 10¹¹ MPs/d. Small scale fiber plastics (<200 μm) could break through RO system according to the size distribution analysis. The application of the IMS system in the reclaimed water plant could prevent most of the microplastics from being discharged in the coastal water. These findings suggested that the IMS system was more efficient than conventional activated sludge system (CAS) for the removal of microplastics, while the discharge of small scale fiber plastics through the IMS system should also not be neglected because small scale fiber plastics (<200 μm) could break through IMS system equipped with the RO system.

Keywords Water reclamation Integrated membrane system Microplastics Removal Coastal zone

Corresponding Author(s): Jian Lu

Issue Date: 02 December 2021

Cite this article:

Ying Cai,Jun Wu,Jian Lu, et al. Fate of microplastics in a coastal wastewater treatment plant: Microfibers could partially break through the integrated membrane system[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(7): 96.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-021-1517-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I7/96

Fig.1 Wastewater treatment process at the coastal reclaimed water plant. M1: Influent of IMS; M2: Primary treatment of IMS; M3: MBR treatment of IMS; M4: RO treatment of IMS; A1: Influent of CAS; A2: Primary treatment of CAS; A3: Secondary treatment of CAS; S1: discharge area of the Yellow Sea; S2: 2.0?km away from discharge area.

Fig.2 Photos of appearance microplastics found in different sampling point at the coastal reclaimed water plant. (a–c) fragments; (d and e) films; (f) pellet; (g–i) fibers.

Fig.3 Shape fraction of microplastics at the coastal reclaimed water plant. M1: Influent of IMS; M3: MBR treatment of IMS; M4: RO treatment of IMS; A1: Influent of CAS; A3: Secondary treatment of CAS; S1: discharge area of the Yellow Sea; S2: 2.0?km away from discharge area.

Fig.4 Infrared spectras of detected microplastics: polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC).

Fig.5 Type distribution of microplastics at the coastal reclaimed water plant. M1: Influent of IMS; M2: Primary treatment of IMS; M3: MBR treatment of IMS; M4: RO treatment of IMS; A1: Influent of CAS; A2: Primary treatment of CAS; A3: Secondary treatment of CAS; S1: discharge area of the Yellow Sea; S2: 2.0?km away from discharge area. (a) Type distribution of microplastics at all sampling points; (b) Type distribution of microplastics in sea water.

Fig.6 Size distribution of microplastics in IMS and CAS at the coastal reclaimed water plant. M1: Influent of IMS; M3: MBR treatment of IMS; M4: RO treatment of IMS. A1: Influent of CAS; A3: Secondary treatment of CAS.

Fig.7 Daily flux (a) and removal efficiency (b) of microplatics in IMS (M1, M2, M3 and M4) and CAS (A1, A2 and A3) at the reclaimed water plant.

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