2023-05-11 23:22:33
An investigation, led by the University of Coimbra, shows that industrial effluents are not the ones that make the greatest contribution to contamination by microplastics when compared to domestic effluents from municipal Wastewater Treatment Stations (ETAR’S). The researchers involved are developing a bioprocess based on agroforestry residues to remove these particles.
This study, whose main objective is to understand the potential for contamination from industrial effluents after treatment in companies’ internal treatment plants, is being carried out by a team of researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering (DEQ) of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) within the scope of the “Make water cleaner” project.
According to Solange Magalhães, a researcher at the Research Center for Chemical Process Engineering and Forest Products (CIEPQPF) at DEQ, «it has already been possible to identify the composition of the main microplastics found, the most abundant in the effluents of different industries is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a polymer widely used in different industries».
It was also found that «the physical and chemical properties of the microplastics found indicate that, for the most part, they have a negative surface charge, so that the bioflocculants that are being developed and that were obtained from agroforestry residues and biomass from of invasive species, promote efficient flocculation and subsequent removal of effluents», explains the researcher from FCTUC, adding that flocculation is an essential step in the traditional treatment of effluents, widely used in WWTPs.
Given the high consumption of plastics and the lack of care on the part of users in making a correct separation and forwarding for recycling, the contamination of the environment by microplastics has become an emerging problem all over the world. Therefore, for the FCTUC team, «all technologies that make it possible to minimize this problem are of great interest at an environmental and social level. The recovery of a biomass residue and the development of a product that prevents environmental contamination, avoiding the use of compounds of synthetic origin, also has a high impact», he concludes.
The “Make water cleaner” project, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), also has the participation of researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED) of the University of Algarve, and the Research Center FSCN from MidSweden Univeristy in Sweden.
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