RT journal article
T1 Performance of intermittent sand and coke filters for the removal of size-ranged microplastics
A1 Martín García, Ana Pilar
A1 Egea-Corbacho Lopera, Agata
A1 Franco del Pino, Ana Amelia
A1 Rodríguez Barroso, María del Rocío
A1 Coello Oviedo, María Dolores
A1 Quiroga Alonso, José María
A2 Biología
A2 Tecnologías del Medio Ambiente
K1 Advanced treatment
K1 Filtration
K1 Micropollutants
K1 Plastics
K1 Wastewater
AB Microplastics (MPs) are a growing environmental problem that threaten living organisms, especially in water ecosystems. One of the main sources of MPs in water environments are wastewater treatment plants, which remove the majority of these micropollutants, but large amounts keep reaching the environment daily. To achieve a larger removal on MPs in wastewater, intermittent filtration sets as an efficient and cheap alternative. In this work, three laboratory-scale filters were tested, with different filtration media (sand, sand/coke and coke) to compare their performance with PP-spiked freshwater and real wastewater samples in removing MPs from different size ranges, from larger than 32 µm to 100 µm. Sand/coke and coke filters showed the best results, with a general microplastic removal efficiency of up to 92.79 ± 2.78 % for wastewater and 89.56 ± 2.19 % for PP-spiked water. This removal efficiency decreased with smaller MPs, reaching up to 90.87 ± 3.46 % for wastewater and 76.28 ± 8.54 % for PP-spiked water. Significant differences were found on efficiencies for PP-spiked water and wastewater, especially in the range from 32 to 63 µm, where biofilm formed on pores surface with wastewater filtration may play an important role for the removal of these MPs.
PB Elsevier
SN 2772-4166
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/35846
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/35846
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026