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Targeting nanoplastic and microplastic removal in treated wastewater with a simple indicator

Nature Water volume 2, pages 72–83 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

With growing concerns over plastic accumulation in the environment, it is imperative to quantify nanoplastic and microplastic release to water bodies via water treatment plant effluent streams. Current methodological limitations present a major challenge for continuous monitoring of nanosized pollutants in effluent streams. In this work, a novel correlation was established between removal of nanoplastics and total suspended solids (TSS) during aggregation-based wastewater treatment. The established correlation successfully predicted nanoplastic removal for a wide range of relevant nanoplastic properties, including polymer type, size, surface functionalization and ageing history, under 41 different physico-chemical and activated sludge treatment conditions (R2 = 0.92; n = 117). The results of our correlation reveal a predicted nanoplastic removal between 39% and 69% for typical water treatment effluent streams governed by current TSS regulations in North America. The study also reveals the potential of using TSS as a simple metric to estimate microfibre, microsphere and microfragment removal.

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Fig. 1: TSS and nanoplastic removal through physico-chemical treatment in synthetic wastewater.
Fig. 2: Relationship between the removal of nanoplastics and TSS for varying contaminant conditions.
Fig. 3: Correlation between polystyrene nanoplastic removal and TSS for varying process conditions.
Fig. 4: Nanoplastic removal as a function of TSS removal in samples of municipal wastewater influent, activated sludge-treated water and aerated lagoon water.
Fig. 5: Correlation between TSS and nanoplastic removal for a typical physico-chemical treatment process.
Fig. 6: Microplastic and microfibre removal during physico-chemical treatment.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings in this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information. Data collected and used to create the figures in this study are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22082369.

Code availability

The relevant code used for optimizing the collision efficiency ratio parameter and plotting the predicted nanoplastic removal can be accessed at repositories under the GitHub account in ref. 52.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRC-2016-00205, N.T.), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (RGPIN/04519-2019, N.T.), the Killam Research Fellowship (7025-19-0049, N.T.) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (36368, 40070, N.T.). S.A.F. was supported by a Graduate Excellence Fellowship at McGill University, M.L. was supported by a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship, R.S.K. was supported by NSERC and Fonds de Recherche du Québec Nature et technologies (FRQNT) Postdoctoral Fellowships and Z.L. was supported by NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program. We thank L. Hernandez (McGill University) for assistance with electron microscopy imaging and Q. Zheng for assistance with synthetic wastewater jar test experiments.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Sinan Abi Farraj, Mathieu Lapointe.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Sinan Abi Farraj, Mathieu Lapointe, Rafael S. Kurusu & Nathalie Tufenkji

  2. Department of Construction Engineering, École de technologie supérieure, University of Québec, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

    Mathieu Lapointe

  3. Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering, Polytechnique Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Zhen Liu & Benoit Barbeau

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Contributions

S.A.F, M.L. and N.T. conceived and designed the project and prepared the manuscript. S.A.F., M.L. and R.S.K. performed the experiments with synthetic wastewater. S.A.F., Z.L. and B.B. sourced the municipal wastewater influents, activated sludge-treated samples and aerated lagoon water samples and performed the relevant experiments. M.L. designed and constructed the reactor for pilot-scale experiments. M.L. initiated the concept of the correlation between nanoplastics and TSS removal. S.A.F. derived the mathematical model and designed the modelling approach and visual elements of the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mathieu Lapointe or Nathalie Tufenkji.

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Competing interests

M.L. and N.T. have applied for a patent on the use of fibre-based materials for water treatment. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Water thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–13 and Tables 1–3.

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Abi Farraj, S., Lapointe, M., Kurusu, R.S. et al. Targeting nanoplastic and microplastic removal in treated wastewater with a simple indicator. Nat Water 2, 72–83 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00177-3

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