Behavior and removal of microplastics during desalination in a lab-scale direct contact membrane distillation system

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2023

Authors

Miranda, MN (Author) FEUP; Fernandes, ART (Author) Other; Silva, Adrian (Author) FEUP; Manuel Fernando R Pereira (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Desalination

Vol. 565

ISSN: 0011-9164

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 0 Citations

Scopus - 0 Citations

Associated Projects

Healthy Waters - Healthy Waters - Identification, Elimination, Social Awareness and Education of Water Chemical and Biological Micropollutants with Health and Environmental Implications

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Y-RXX

DOI: 10.1016/j.desal.2023.116846

Abstract (EN): The behavior of microplastic particles (MPPs) is explored in a lab-scale direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system used to produce drinking water from seawater, while also analyzing the impact of their presence on the process performance. Commercial MPPs (LDPE, PET and uPVC) were first studied by temperature stress (TS) tests (using amber bottles) to mimic the exposure to the high temperatures commonly used in DCMD (ca. 80 degrees C), which led to uPVC being selected to be tested under different loads and aging degrees in the DCMD system. By analyzing uPVC MPPs samples before and after the TS and DCMD experiments by ATR-FTIR, UV-Visible spectroscopy and SEM, it was concluded that minor aging is expected to occur. High loads (>0.1 g L-1) of uPVC MPPs decreased the DCMD performance in terms of permeate flux (from 32.8 & PLUSMN; 0.3 with filtered seawater to 28.7 & PLUSMN; 0.3 kg m- 2 h-1 with a load of 0.2 g L-1), although no signs of inferior treated water quality were found based on the conductivity and salinity results. The removal of MPPs (size > 1.2 & mu;m) in DCMD applications with seawater was analyzed by & mu;Raman, with all the results suggesting very high removal efficiencies (>99 %).

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 12