Steigende gesetzliche Regulationen für Polymere, Kunststoffe und Mikroplastik, hohe Kosten für Wasser, Abfälle, Energie, Chemikalien und die Instandhaltung von Anlagen sowie komplexe Verschmutzungsszenarien - Unternehmen, die in ihren Prozessen viel Wasser, Polymere und weitere Chemikalien einsetzen, stehen vor der Herausforderung ihr Umwelt-, Abfall- und Ressourcenmanagements neu auszurichten. Mit dem Verfahren Wasser 3.0 PE-X® steht erstmals eine adaptive Komplettlösung für ein nachhaltiges und kosteneffizientes Sustainability Upgrade für die industrielle Wasserbehandlung zur Verfügung. Der Schwerpunkt des Verfahrens, das auf Green Chemistry, low-tech Anlagen und kreislaufwirtschaftliche Prozesse setzt, liegt in der Entfernung von Mikroplastik. Bei geringen Anschaffungs- und Betriebskosten verbessern sich dabei nicht nur die Wasserqualität, sondern auch Ressourcennutzung, Abfallaufkommen und Energieverbrauch.

Microplastics and highly viscous oligomers (including soluble polymers) cannot yet be removed within the purification stages of a wastewater treatment plant. For this reason alone, sewage treatment plants are considered to be emitters of microplastics into the environment. Read more in our blog.

In one of our last studies on the topic of microplastics, we looked at typical everyday questions relating to washing. One question was: Are washing machines really a hotspot for microplastics? Another was: What can everyone do quickly and easily at home to reduce the input of microplastics from textiles? Answers can be found in the blog and in our publication.

Washing synthetic textiles releases large amounts of microplastics into the environment every day worldwide. This is why France is introducing mandatory microplastic filters for new washing machines beginning in 2025. But just how effective are such filters? And is this the most effective approach moving forwards? This blog post covers how microplastics are formed during washing, which factors influence their formation, the reduction and prevention strategies which currently exist, and potential solutions.

Wastewater treatment plants are important point sources of microplastics and micropollutants into the environment. Many wastewater treatment plants will be required to upgrade their facilities with an advanced treatment step to remove micropollutants, but these processes do not target microplastic removal. We therefore investigated the ability of two advanced treatment methods and our novel Wasser 3.0 PE-X® process to remove microplastics at the wastewater treatment plant in Landau, Germany. Read more about the key finding of our study, which was recently published open access in MDPI Water.