Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor(a) principal: Mendonça, Ivana
Data de Publicação: 2023
Outros Autores: Sousa, Jessica, Cunha, César, Faria, Marisa, Ferreira, Artur, Cordeiro, Nereida
Tipo de documento: Artigo
Idioma: eng
Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5132
Resumo: The prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in both urban and aquatic ecosystems is concerning, with wastewater treatment plants being considered one of the major sources of the issue. As the focus on developing sustainable solutions increases, unused remnants from bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes were ground to form BC hydrogels as potential bioflocculants of MPs. The influence of operational parameters such as BC:MPs ratio, hydrogel grinding, immersion and mixing time, temperature, pH, ionic strength, and metal cations on MPs flocculation and dispersion were evaluated. A response surface methodology based on experimental data sets was computed to understand how these parameters influence the flocculation process. Further, both the BC hydrogel and the hetero-aggregation of MPs were characterised by UV–Vis, ATR-FTIR, IGC, water uptake assays, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. These highlights that the BC hydrogel would be fully effective at hetero aggregating MPs in naturally-occurring concentrations, thereby not constituting a limiting performance factor for MPs’ optimal flocculation and aggregation. Even considering exceptionally high concentrations of MPs (2 g/ L) that far exceed naturally-occurring concentrations, the BC hydrogel was shown to have elevated MPs floc culation activity (reaching 88.6%: 1.77 g/L). The computation of bioflocculation activity showed high reliability in predicting flocculation performance, unveiling that the BC:MPs ratio and grinding times were the most critical variables modulating flocculation rates. Also, short exposure times (5 min) were sufficient to drive robust particle aggregation. The microporous nature of the hydrogel revealed by electron microscopy is the likely driver of strong MPs bioflocculant activity, far outperforming dispersive commercial bioflocculants like xanthan gum and alginate. This pilot study provides convincing evidence that even BC remainings can be used to produce highly potent and circular bioflocculators of MPs, with prospective application in the wastewater treatment industry
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spelling Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational modelsBacterial celluloseBiopolymerMicroplasticsFlocculationBioremediation.Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da EngenhariaThe prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in both urban and aquatic ecosystems is concerning, with wastewater treatment plants being considered one of the major sources of the issue. As the focus on developing sustainable solutions increases, unused remnants from bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes were ground to form BC hydrogels as potential bioflocculants of MPs. The influence of operational parameters such as BC:MPs ratio, hydrogel grinding, immersion and mixing time, temperature, pH, ionic strength, and metal cations on MPs flocculation and dispersion were evaluated. A response surface methodology based on experimental data sets was computed to understand how these parameters influence the flocculation process. Further, both the BC hydrogel and the hetero-aggregation of MPs were characterised by UV–Vis, ATR-FTIR, IGC, water uptake assays, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. These highlights that the BC hydrogel would be fully effective at hetero aggregating MPs in naturally-occurring concentrations, thereby not constituting a limiting performance factor for MPs’ optimal flocculation and aggregation. Even considering exceptionally high concentrations of MPs (2 g/ L) that far exceed naturally-occurring concentrations, the BC hydrogel was shown to have elevated MPs floc culation activity (reaching 88.6%: 1.77 g/L). The computation of bioflocculation activity showed high reliability in predicting flocculation performance, unveiling that the BC:MPs ratio and grinding times were the most critical variables modulating flocculation rates. Also, short exposure times (5 min) were sufficient to drive robust particle aggregation. The microporous nature of the hydrogel revealed by electron microscopy is the likely driver of strong MPs bioflocculant activity, far outperforming dispersive commercial bioflocculants like xanthan gum and alginate. This pilot study provides convincing evidence that even BC remainings can be used to produce highly potent and circular bioflocculators of MPs, with prospective application in the wastewater treatment industryElsevierDigitUMaMendonça, IvanaSousa, JessicaCunha, CésarFaria, MarisaFerreira, ArturCordeiro, Nereida2023-04-21T11:11:49Z20232023-01-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5132eng10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137719info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-04-23T05:37:43Zoai:digituma.uma.pt:10400.13/5132Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T17:50:11.724311Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
title Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
spellingShingle Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
Mendonça, Ivana
Bacterial cellulose
Biopolymer
Microplastics
Flocculation
Bioremediation
.
Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia
title_short Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
title_full Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
title_fullStr Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
title_full_unstemmed Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
title_sort Solving urban water microplastics with bacterial cellulose hydrogels: leveraging predictive computational models
author Mendonça, Ivana
author_facet Mendonça, Ivana
Sousa, Jessica
Cunha, César
Faria, Marisa
Ferreira, Artur
Cordeiro, Nereida
author_role author
author2 Sousa, Jessica
Cunha, César
Faria, Marisa
Ferreira, Artur
Cordeiro, Nereida
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv DigitUMa
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv Mendonça, Ivana
Sousa, Jessica
Cunha, César
Faria, Marisa
Ferreira, Artur
Cordeiro, Nereida
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv Bacterial cellulose
Biopolymer
Microplastics
Flocculation
Bioremediation
.
Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia
topic Bacterial cellulose
Biopolymer
Microplastics
Flocculation
Bioremediation
.
Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia
description The prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in both urban and aquatic ecosystems is concerning, with wastewater treatment plants being considered one of the major sources of the issue. As the focus on developing sustainable solutions increases, unused remnants from bacterial cellulose (BC) membranes were ground to form BC hydrogels as potential bioflocculants of MPs. The influence of operational parameters such as BC:MPs ratio, hydrogel grinding, immersion and mixing time, temperature, pH, ionic strength, and metal cations on MPs flocculation and dispersion were evaluated. A response surface methodology based on experimental data sets was computed to understand how these parameters influence the flocculation process. Further, both the BC hydrogel and the hetero-aggregation of MPs were characterised by UV–Vis, ATR-FTIR, IGC, water uptake assays, fluorescence, and scanning electron microscopy. These highlights that the BC hydrogel would be fully effective at hetero aggregating MPs in naturally-occurring concentrations, thereby not constituting a limiting performance factor for MPs’ optimal flocculation and aggregation. Even considering exceptionally high concentrations of MPs (2 g/ L) that far exceed naturally-occurring concentrations, the BC hydrogel was shown to have elevated MPs floc culation activity (reaching 88.6%: 1.77 g/L). The computation of bioflocculation activity showed high reliability in predicting flocculation performance, unveiling that the BC:MPs ratio and grinding times were the most critical variables modulating flocculation rates. Also, short exposure times (5 min) were sufficient to drive robust particle aggregation. The microporous nature of the hydrogel revealed by electron microscopy is the likely driver of strong MPs bioflocculant activity, far outperforming dispersive commercial bioflocculants like xanthan gum and alginate. This pilot study provides convincing evidence that even BC remainings can be used to produce highly potent and circular bioflocculators of MPs, with prospective application in the wastewater treatment industry
publishDate 2023
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023-04-21T11:11:49Z
2023
2023-01-01T00:00:00Z
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5132
url http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5132
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137719
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
instacron:RCAAP
instname_str Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
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reponame_str Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
collection Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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