LB3-Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Madeira, Portugal; CIIMAR-Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Portugal.
LB3-Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Madeira, Portugal.
Water Res. 2022 Aug 15;222:118952. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118952. Epub 2022 Aug 5.
Microplastics (MPs) pollution has become one of our time's most consequential issue. These micropolymeric particles are ubiquitously distributed across all natural and urban ecosystems. Current filtration systems in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) rely on non-biodegradable fossil-based polymeric filters whose maintenance procedures are environmentally damaging and unsustainable. Following the need to develop sustainable filtration frameworks for MPs water removal, years of R&D lead to the conception of bacterial cellulose (BC) biopolymers. These bacterial-based naturally secreted polymers display unique features for biotechnological applications, such as straightforward production, large surface areas, nanoporous structures, biodegradability, and utilitarian circularity. Diligently, techniques such as flow cytometry, scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy were used to evaluate the feasibility and characterise the removal dynamics of highly concentrated MPs-polluted water by BC biopolymers. Results show that BC biopolymers display removal efficiencies of MPs of up to 99%, maintaining high performance for several continuous cycles. The polymer's characterisation showed that MPs were both adsorbed and incorporated in the 3D nanofibrillar network. The use of more economically- and logistics-favourable dried BC biopolymers preserves their physicochemical properties while maintaining high efficiency (93-96%). These polymers exhibited exceptional structural preservation, conserving a high water uptake capacity which drives microparticle retention. In sum, this study provides clear evidence that BC biopolymers are high performing, multifaceted and genuinely sustainable/circular alternatives to synthetic water treatment MPs-removal technologies.
微塑料 (MPs) 污染已成为我们这个时代最重要的问题之一。这些微聚合物颗粒广泛分布于所有自然和城市生态系统中。目前，废水处理厂 (WWTP) 的过滤系统依赖于不可生物降解的基于化石的聚合过滤器，其维护程序对环境具有破坏性且不可持续。为了开发可持续的 MPs 水去除过滤框架，经过多年的研发，人们提出了细菌纤维素 (BC) 生物聚合物的概念。这些基于细菌的天然分泌聚合物具有独特的生物技术应用特性，例如简单的生产、大表面积、纳米多孔结构、可生物降解性和实用的循环性。通过使用流式细胞术、扫描电子显微镜和荧光显微镜等技术，我们评估了 BC 生物聚合物去除高浓度 MPs 污染水的可行性和去除动力学特性。结果表明，BC 生物聚合物对 MPs 的去除效率高达 99%，并能在几个连续循环中保持高性能。聚合物的特性表明，MPs 既被吸附又被整合到 3D 纳米纤维网络中。使用更经济和物流友好的干燥 BC 生物聚合物可以保持其物理化学性质，同时保持高效率 (93-96%)。这些聚合物表现出了出色的结构保存能力，保持了较高的水吸收能力，从而实现了对微粒子的保留。总之，这项研究清楚地证明了 BC 生物聚合物是高性能、多方面的、真正可持续/循环的替代合成水处理 MPs 去除技术的选择。
