TY - JOUR A1 - Abusafia, A. A1 - Scheid, C. A1 - Meurer, Maren A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Dittmer, U. A1 - Steinmetz, H. T1 - Microplastic sampling strategies in urban drainage systems for quantification of urban emissions based on transport pathways JF - Applied Research N2 - Tracking waterborne microplastic (MP) in urban areas is a challenging task because of the various sources and transport pathways involved. Since MP occurs in low concentrations in most wastewater and stormwater streams, large sample volumes need to be captured, prepared, and carefully analyzed. The recent research in urban areas focused mainly on MP emissions at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), as obvious entry points into receiving waters. However, important transport pathways under wet-weather conditions are yet not been investigated thoroughly. In addition, the lack of comprehensive and comparable sampling strategies complicated the attempts for a deeper understanding of occurrence and sources. The goal of this paper is to (i) introduce and describe sampling strategies for MP at different locations in a municipal catchment area under dry and wet-weather conditions, (ii) quantify MP emissions from the entire catchment and two other smaller ones within the bigger catchment, and (iii) compare the emissions under dry and wet-weather conditions. WWTP has a high removal rate of MP (>96%), with an estimated emission rate of 189 kg/a or 0.94 g/[population equivalents (PEQ · a)], and polyethylene (PE) as the most abundant MP. The specific dry-weather emissions at a subcatchment were ≈30 g/(PEQ · a) higher than in the influent of WWTP with 23 g/(PEQ · a). Specific wet-weather emissions from large sub-catchment with higher traffic and population densities were 1952 g/(ha · a) higher than the emissions from smaller catchment (796 g/[ha · a]) with less population and traffic. The results suggest that wet-weather transport pathways are likely responsible for 2–4 times more MP emissions into receiving waters compared to dry-weather ones due to tire abrasion entered from streets through gullies. However, more investigations of wet-weather MP need to be carried out considering additional catchment attributes and storm event characteristics. KW - Combined sewer system KW - Large volume samplers KW - Microplastic pollution KW - Separate sewer system KW - Stormwater retention tank PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-568271 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/appl.202200056 SP - 1 EP - 12 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-56827 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Heymann, S. A1 - Braun, U. A1 - Bannick, C.-G. A1 - Heller, C. A1 - Fuchs, M. A1 - Scheid, C. A1 - Abusafia, A. A1 - Steinmetz, H. A1 - Ricking, M. A1 - Kerndorff, A. T1 - Untersuchungsverfahren von Mikroplastikgehalten im Wasser für Praxis und Wissenschaft JF - Korrespondenz Wasserwirtschaft N2 - Zielsetzung des vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung geförderten Projektes RUSEKU war es, repräsentative Untersuchungsstrategien für die Detektion von Mikroplastik mittels TED GC/MS in wässerigen Medien zu ermitteln. Dabei wurden verschiedene Probenahmekonzepte und – verfahren für unterschiedliche Fallgestaltungen und Fragestellungen untersucht, sowie neue Filtersysteme entwickelt. Bei der Detektion der Partikel lag der Fokus auf der Anwendung und Weiterentwicklung der ThermoExtraktion/Desorption-Gaschromatographie-Massenspektrometrie (TED-GC/MS) zur Bestimmung von Mikroplastikgehalten. Anwendung fanden die Methoden bei der Beprobung von Flaschenwasser, Waschmaschinenabläufen, dem urbanen Abwassersystem der Stadt Kaiserslautern, sowie in Oberflächengewässer. KW - Mikroplastik KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Mikroplastik-Analytik KW - Probennahme PY - 2021 VL - 14. Jahrgang IS - 3 SP - 147 EP - 152 PB - Deutschen Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall CY - Hennef AN - OPUS4-52260 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Goedecke, Caroline A1 - Bannick, C.-G. A1 - Abusafia, A. A1 - Scheid, C. A1 - Steinmetz, H. A1 - Paul, Andrea A1 - Beleites, C. A1 - Braun, U. T1 - Identification of microplastic pathways within a typical European urban wastewater system JF - Applied Research N2 - In recent years, thermoextraction/desorption-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TED-GC/MS) has been developed as a rapid detection method for the determination of microplastics (MP) mass contents in numerous environmentally relevant matrices and, in particular, for the measurement of polymers in water samples without time-consuming sample preparation. The TED-GC/MS method was applied to investigate a typical European municipal wastewater system for possible MP masses. Such investigations are important in view of the recent revision of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Four different representative sampling sites were selected: greywater (domestic wastewater without toilet), combined sewer, and influent and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). All samples were collected by fractional filtration. Filtration was carried out over mesh sizes of 500, 100, 50, and in some cases, 5 µm. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) were detected in all samples, with the PE fraction dominating in all cases. Styrene-butadiene rubber which serves as an indication of tire abrasion, was only found in the influent of the WWTP. The highest MP mass contents were found in the combined sewer, so MP can become a source of pollution during heavy rain events when the capacity limits of the effluent are reached, and the polluted effluent is released uncontrolled into the environment. Based on the studies, MP retention from the WWTP could be estimated to be approximately 96%. Few trends in polymer type or mass contents were detected within the different fractions of the samples or when comparing samples to each other. KW - Microplastics KW - Microplastic analysis KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Microplastic pathways KW - Mass contents PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-568289 DO - https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1002/appl.202200078 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-56828 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -