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Marine pollution, ecotoxicology and sustainability
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A novel, highly efficient method for the separation of plastic particles in sediments of aquatic environments
Monday 7th @ 1110-1130, Conference Room 7 Julian von Borries* , Hydro-Bios Apparatebau GmbH, Altenholz, Germany Hannes Imhof, University of Bayreuth, Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth, Germany Johannes Schmid, Technical University of Munich, Institute of Hydrochemistry, Munich,Germany Reinhard Niessner, Technical University of Munich, Institute of Hydrochemistry, Munich,Germany Natalia Ivleva, Technical University of Munich, Institute of Hydrochemistry, Munich,Germany Christian Laforsch, University of Bayreuth, Animal Ecology I, Bayreuth, Germany Presenter Email: j.borries@hydrobios.de |
Plastic debris is constantly accumulating in aquatic environments. A first important step to assess the consequences of plastic debris in aquatic ecosystems is the establishment of a reliable, verified, and standardized method to quantify the amount of plastic particles in the environment.
We improved the density separation approach by the construction of the MicroPlastic Sediment Separator (MPSS). It enables a reliable separation of different ecologically relevant size classes of plastic particles from sediment samples. A high dense separation fluid allows for an extraction of plastic particles ranging from large fragments (L-MPP) to small microplastic particles (S-MPP). Identification and quantification of the particles with spatial resolution down to 1μm can be performed using Raman microspectroscopy.
Our study is the first providing validated recovery rates of 100% for large microplastic particles L-MPP and 95.5% for S-MPP. The recovery rate for S-MPP, using the MPSS, was significantly higher than the value obtained by application of classical density separation setup (39.8%). Moreover, our recovery rates were significantly higher than those based on froth flotation (55.0% for L-MPP) commonly used in recycling industries.
Hence, our improved method can be used for a reliable and time-efficient separation, identification and quantification of plastic fragments down to S-MPP. |
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