scholarly journals Microplastics in Ecosystems: From Current Trends to Bio-Based Removal Strategies

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (17) ◽  
pp. 3954
Author(s):  
Solange Magalhães ◽  
Luís Alves ◽  
Bruno Medronho ◽  
Anabela Romano ◽  
Maria da Graça Rasteiro

Plastics are widely used due to their excellent properties, inexpensiveness and versatility leading to an exponential consumption growth during the last decades. However, most plastic does not biodegrade in any meaningful sense; it can exist for hundreds of years. Only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled, the rest being dumped in landfills, incinerated or simply not collected. Waste-water treatment plants can only minimize the problem by trapping plastic particles of larger size and some smaller ones remain within oxidation ponds or sewage sludge, but a large amount of microplastics still contaminate water streams and marine systems. Thus, it is clear that in order to tackle this potential ecological disaster, new strategies are necessary. This review aims at briefly introducing the microplastics threat and critically discusses emerging technologies, which are capable to efficiently clean aqueous media. Special focus is given to novel greener approaches based on lignocellulose flocculants and other biomaterials. In the final part of the present review, it was given a proof of concept, using a bioflocculant to remove micronized plastic from aqueous medium. The obtained results demonstrate the huge potential of these biopolymers to clean waters from the microplastics threat, using flocculants with appropriate structure.

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A. Danilovich ◽  
M.N. Kozlov ◽  
V.I. Sklyar ◽  
Yu.A. Nikolaev ◽  
N.M. Shchegolkova ◽  
...  

This work demonstrates a possibility of composting of municipal waste waters sludge (WWS) digested during 5-7 days, of the Kuryanovo waste water treatment plants (the city of Moscow) without the use of traditional organic additives – sawdust, peat, thatch. As a recycling filler (repeatedly used), enhancing the porosity of the composted mixture, ribbed polyethylene spheres (∅=8 cm) and wood chips (having dimension of 5-10 cm) were used. Composting was performed efficiently in both cases, however, the use of wood ships had technological and economical advantages. The process of composting was carried out during 2-4 weeks and was composed of classical phases of active heating (a rate of 0.2-0.3oC/h was obtained), maintaining of maximum temperature during 1-2 days, and cooling down to the ambient temperature. During the course of composting, a product was obtained, having attractive organoleptic properties, suitable for application in municipal laying-out of greenery.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Iwai ◽  
Y. Oshino ◽  
T. Tsukada

Although the ratio of sewer systems to population in Japan has been improving in recent years, the construction of sewer systems in small communities such as farming or fishing villages, etc. had lagged behind that of urban areas. However, construction of small-scale sewer systems in farming and fishing villages has been actively carried out in recent years. This report explains the history of the promotion of small-scale sewer systems, why submerged filter beds are being employed in many cases, and introduces the design, operation and maintenance of representative waste-water treatment plants in farming and fishing villages which incorporate de-nitrogen and dephosphorization.


1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 149-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Höfken ◽  
Katharina Zähringer ◽  
Franz Bischof

A novel agitating system has been developed which allows for individual or combined operation of stirring and aeration processes. Basic fluid mechanical considerations led to the innovative hyperboloid design of the stirrer body, which ensures high efficiencies in the stirring and the aeration mode, gentle circulation with low shear forces, excellent controllability, and a wide range of applications. This paper presents the basic considerations which led to the operating principle, the technical realization of the system and experimental results in a large-scale plant. The characteristics of the system and the differences to other stirring and aeration systems are illustrated. Details of the technical realization are shown, which conform to the specific demands of applications in the biological treatment of waste water. Special regard is given to applications in the upgrading of small compact waste water treatment plants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vandana Sukhadia ◽  
Rashmi Sharma ◽  
Asha Meena

Aims: The aim of this research work is to synthesise, study and analyse photocatalytic degradation, kinetics and microbial activity of new surfactant Copper (II) soya urea complex(CSU). Background: Photocatalytic degradation has attracted the attention of scientific community throughout the world due to its multiple applications in environment, energy, waste water treatment, pollution control, green chemistry, etc. Copper (II) soya urea complex has been synthesized and characterized through FT-IR, NMR, ESR studies. Objective: Present work deals with the study of photocatalytic degradation of Copper (II) soya urea complex by using ZnO as semiconductor. This study employs a semiconductor catalyst using non polar and non aqueous solvent in photocatalytic degradation. Reaction rate is chosen as the photocatalytic activity, which has been governed by several factors. Antibacterial activities of Copper (II) complex have also been studied against Staphylococcus aureus. Method: Optical density (O.D.) was measured after different time intervals spectrophotometrically to measure the degradation of complex. Mueller-Hinton agar medium was used for antimicrobial activity of synthesized compound at different concentrations by disk/ well diffusion susceptibility testing. Result: Plot of 2+log O.D. (absorbance) versus time was plotted and found linear. The heterogeneous photocatalysis followed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics.The present study suggests that Copper (II) soya urea (CSU) complex shows antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus at different concentrations. Conclusion: The results were used to determine the rate of photocatalytic degradation of CSU complex .It has been found that rate of degradation varies with different parameters like concentration of complex, amount of catalyst, light intensity, solvent polarity etc. CSU complex derived from soyabean oil has been shown an inhibitory effect on the growth of S. aureus which may causes skin disease.


2021 ◽  
Vol 278 ◽  
pp. 116834
Author(s):  
Kristina Radinović ◽  
Jadranka Milikić ◽  
Una Stamenović ◽  
Vesna Vodnik ◽  
Mojca Otoničar ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 129 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Serge Kräutle ◽  
Jan Hodai ◽  
Peter Knabner

AbstractWe consider a macroscale model of transport and reaction of chemical species in a porous medium with a special focus on mineral precipitation–dissolution processes. In the literature, it is frequently proposed that the reaction rate should depend on the reactive mineral surface area, and so on the amount of mineral. We point out that a frequently used model is ill posed in the sense that it admits non-unique solutions. We investigate what consequences this non-uniqueness has on the numerical solution of the model. The main novelty in this article is our proposal of a certain substitution which removes the ill-posedness from the system and which leads to better numerical results than some “ad hoc methods.” We think that the proposed substitution is a rather elegant way to get rid of the non-uniqueness and the numerical difficulties and is much less technical than other ideas. As a proof of concept, we present some numerical tests and simulations for the new model.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cornel ◽  
B. Weber

Irrigation periods are usually limited to vegetation periods. The quality requirements for treated wastewater for disposal and for reuse are different. The reuse of water for irrigation allows partly the reuse of the wastewater's nutrients (N and P). Outside the irrigation period the water must be treated for disposal, thus nutrient removal is often required in order to avoid detrimental effects on the receiving surface water body. Only wastewater treatment plants with different operation modes for different seasons can realise these requirements. The nitrification is the most sensitive biological process in the aerobic wastewater treatment process. At low water temperatures the nitrifying bacteria need several weeks to re-start full nitrification after periods without NH4-removal. Therefore it is necessary to develop options for waste water treatment plants which allow a fast re-start of the nitrification process. Based on theoretical considerations and computer simulations of the activated sludge treatment process, one possibility for implementing a wastewater treatment plant with different seasonal operation modes is evaluated.


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