The Potential of Electron Beams for the Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater and Sewage Sludge

Wastewater and sewage sludge treatment plants are known to be important entrance routes for microplastics (MPs) into the aquatic environment. Although traditional wastewater treatment plants with primary and secondary purification processes can remove over 99% of MPs, the majority of these are believed to be deposited into the sewage sludge. This provides a route into the environment, especially if the treated sludge is used as a fertilizer on agricultural land. Although methods do exist for the removal of MPs from sludge, these are currently inefficient. The possibility of using electron beam treatment for the removal of microplastics from wastewater and sewage sludge has been investigated. Six types of plastics in daily use, <1.5mm in size, were treated at a range of doses in tap water and in sewage sludge, taken both before and after anaerobic digestion, with a 10MeV accelerated electron beam. In this treatment, the electrons were found to act as a coagulant by modifying the surface charge of the microplastics. This significantly increases the sedimentation of four out of six of the types of MP in both water and sludge, while the other two largely remain floating. Density separation techniques of the treated samples have then demonstrated removal efficiencies in the range 85-95% for five of the MP types and of around 70% for the sixth at reasonable EB doses. This potentially provides a route to high efficiency removal from sludge