Electrocoagulation Assessment to Remove Micropolystyrene Particles in Wastewater

Abstract

Microplastics (MP) in water have been recognized as an emerging environmental problem. This work aims to study the applicability of electrocoagulation in the removal of micropolystyrene particles (μPS) suspended in synthetic wastewater and the influence of the main operation conditions: anode material, tank volume, current density, support electrolyte concentration, initial μPS load, μPS size, and interelectrode distance. Results point out that μPS can be removed using an electrocoagulation process for a short treatment time and at a low applied electrical charge and the importance of operating at the optimum applied electrical charge to achieve high removal efficiencies without restabilizing the system. In addition, the optimum current density could be established at 16.3 A m–2, regardless of the tank volume and for both anodic materials, showing the aluminum anode has higher μPS removal efficiencies than the iron anode. Increasing the initial electrolyte concentration and the microplastic size favors μPS removal, while the opposite trend is observed with the microplastic concentration. On the other hand, an increase in the μPS size results in a slight increase in the removal efficiency. The increase of the interelectrode gap does not show a significant effect on the removal performance, but it does impact energy consumption.