Reza Taskeen, Mohamad Riza Zahratul Huda, Sheikh Abdullah Siti Rozaimah, Abu Hasan Hassimi, Ismail Nur 'Izzati, Othman Ahmad Razi
Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan, Bandar Baru Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia.
Research Centre for Sustainable Process Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan, Bandar Baru Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia.
Toxics. 2023 Dec 22;12(1):12. doi: 10.3390/toxics12010012.
Urban industrialization has caused a ubiquity of microplastics in the environment. A large percentage of plastic waste originated from Southeast Asian countries. Microplastics arising from the primary sources of personal care items and industrial uses and the fragmentation of larger plastics have recently garnered attention due to their ubiquity. Due to the rising level of plastic waste in the environment, the bioaccumulation and biomagnification of plastics threaten aquatic and human life. Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents are one of the major sources of these plastic fragments. WWTPs in Southeast Asia contribute largely to microplastic pollution in the marine environment, and thus, further technological improvements are required to ensure the complete and efficient removal of microplastics. Coagulation is a significant process in removing microplastics, and natural coagulants are far superior to their chemical equivalents due to their non-toxicity and cost-effectiveness. A focused literature search was conducted on journal repository platforms, mainly ScienceDirect and Elsevier, and on scientific databases such as Google Scholar using the keywords Wastewater Treatment Plant, Coagulation, Microplastics, Marine Environment and Southeast Asia. The contents and results of numerous papers and research articles were reviewed, and the relevant papers were selected. The relevant findings and research data are summarized in this paper. The paper reviews (1) natural coagulants for microplastic removal and their effectiveness in removing microplastics and (2) the potential use of natural coagulants in Southeast Asian wastewater treatment plants as the abundance of natural materials readily available in the region makes it a feasible option for microplastic removal.
城市工业化导致环境中微塑料无处不在。很大一部分塑料垃圾源自东南亚国家。个人护理用品和工业用途等主要来源产生的微塑料以及较大塑料的破碎,因其无处不在的特性,最近受到了关注。由于环境中塑料垃圾水平不断上升,塑料的生物累积和生物放大作用威胁着水生生物和人类生命。污水处理厂(WWTP)的废水是这些塑料碎片的主要来源之一。东南亚的污水处理厂对海洋环境中的微塑料污染贡献很大,因此,需要进一步改进技术以确保完全有效地去除微塑料。混凝是去除微塑料的一个重要过程,天然混凝剂因其无毒和成本效益高而远比化学混凝剂优越。在期刊数据库平台(主要是ScienceDirect和Elsevier)以及科学数据库(如谷歌学术)上,使用关键词“污水处理厂”“混凝”“微塑料”“海洋环境”和“东南亚”进行了重点文献检索。对众多论文和研究文章的内容及结果进行了综述,并挑选出相关论文。本文总结了相关研究结果和数据。本文综述了(1)用于去除微塑料的天然混凝剂及其去除微塑料的效果,以及(2)天然混凝剂在东南亚污水处理厂的潜在用途,因为该地区有丰富的天然材料,使其成为去除微塑料的可行选择。