ISTC selected to lead feasibility studies for three Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), in collaboration with the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), has announced the selection of the Prairie Research Institute (PRI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to lead three Topic Area 1 (Feasibility) Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs. ISTC is the project lead. Read the full DOE announcement here.

DAC is a process that separates carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, helping to reduce legacy CO2 in the atmosphere. The separated CO2 can then be safely and permanently stored deep underground or converted into useful carbon-containing products like concrete that prevent its release back into the atmosphere.

The three hubs are:

Illinois Basin Regional DAC Hub — Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois) will lead an effort to promote promising technologies that can capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the Illinois Basin – a proven geological storage strata stretching under Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The Illinois Basin Regional DAC Hub intends to develop cooperative relationships between DAC technology providers, green energy providers, CO2 transportation networks, and companies seeking to pump CO2 underground or use it in industrial processes.

DOE Funding: $2,938,528

Non-DOE Funding: $808,057

Total Value: $3,746,585

Colorado (Pueblo) Regional DAC Hub — Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois) will lead an effort to promote promising technologies that can capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it underground and develop a DAC hub that will build upon previous geological studies conducted on the Denver-Julesburg Basin. The Colorado Regional DAC Hub intends to develop cooperative relationships between DAC technology providers, green energy providers, CO2 transportation networks, and companies seeking to pump CO2 underground or use it in industrial processes.

DOE Funding: $2,999,992

Non-DOE Funding: $751,646

Total Value: $3,751,638

Florida Regional DAC Hub — Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Illinois) will lead an effort to promote promising technologies that can capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it underground in the Tuscaloosa Group (thick, permeable saline aquifers 4,920 to 7,050 feet deep). The Florida Regional DAC Hub intends to develop cooperative relationships between DAC technology providers, green energy providers, CO2 transportation networks, and companies seeking to pump CO2 underground or use it in industrial processes. 

DOE Funding: $2,778,670

Non-DOE Funding: $791,394

Total Value: $3,570,064

Scientists study how a diabetes drug affects soils

The transport of pharmaceuticals released from sewage treatment plants into farmland soils, with the potential to load into drinking water sources, is one that researchers at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) study carefully. Even at low concentrations, medications can affect water ecosystems and soil health.

“Applying sewage waste to crop fields is a win-win practice because it provides nutrients and organic matter to the soil and prevents waste sludge from ending up in landfills,” said Wei Zheng, ISTC environmental chemist. “The issue is that wastewater treatment plants cannot remove emerging contaminants and pharmaceuticals. We cannot ignore the potential risks from this practice.”

Biosolids, which are treated sewage sludge, are a product of the wastewater treatment process. Biosolids can be used on farmland to improve soil fertility, Zheng said.

In a recent study, Zheng and colleagues investigated the adsorption of sitagliptin in soils treated with sewage wastewater. Sitagliptin is commonly used to treat diabetes and is frequently detected in sewage effluent and the environment because it does not fully degrade during the wastewater treatment process. Lagoon-based sewage treatment systems in rural areas also remove fewer contaminants than typical municipal wastewater treatment facilities, so contaminant concentrations in sewage are higher.

Sitagliptin concentrations in the environment are unregulated in the United States. The drug is considered an emerging contaminant for its potential risk to the public. 

Study findings showed that biosolids, which have a large amount of organic matter, bonded with the medication in soils and reduced its adsorption. Results also showed that increasing the amount of sewage effluent used for soil amendment reduces the adsorption of sitagliptin in soils.

Metformin is often prescribed, sometimes with sitagliptin, to treat diabetes. As part of this study, the researchers examined how this medication affects the uptake of sitagliptin in soils. Metformin is more water soluble, more degradable, and has less adsorption in soils than sitagliptin. 

They found that increasing metformin concentrations in sewage effluent reduced the interaction of sitagliptin with the soil surface. This means that multiple pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in sewage can compete in soils, reducing the adsorption capacities of individual products.

“Some states have regulations for contaminants, such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are considered ‘forever chemicals’, in biosolids and sewage effluent, so over certain levels, biosolids cannot be used for soil amendments,” Zheng said. “In Illinois, there are no regulations, so it’s highly possible that organic chemical contaminants released from biosolids will leach to drinking water supplies, especially in rural areas. It is important to study and explore ways to minimize the leaching and runoff of PPCPs.”

The results of this study can be used to predict how other PPCPs are transported and adsorbed on agricultural soils and develop management strategies to reduce the risks of using sewage wastes in rural areas.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the project. An article, “Influence of Biosolids and Sewage Effluent Application on Sitagliptin Soil Sorption,” was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. Zheng is also working on a project supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to monitor PPCPs in sewage effluent and develop mitigation strategies to protect the environment and drinking water quality.

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Media contact: Wei Zheng, 217-333-7276, weizheng@illinois.edu

ISTC/University of Birmingham exchange fosters collaboration

l-r: Perry Akrie (ISTC), Jim Best (UIUC Dept. of Geology), John Scott (ISTC), Stefan Krause (UB Ecohydrology and Biogeochemistry), and Rafael Omar Tinoco Lopez (UIUC Civil Engineering), with University of Birmingham students.

ISTC researchers recently visited the University of Plymouth and the University of Birmingham to learn more about their contaminants research. Perry Akrie, a visiting scientific specialist at ISTC, shares his impressions of the trip.

Our journey began with a trip to Plymouth to visit with Dr. Andrew Turner, Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth, and a group of his students. John Scott gave a short talk about his research on microplastics at ISTC over the past several years and the students from Dr. Turner’s lab group presented their current research. Topics included polymer identification, additives and contaminants, adsorption of pollutants, fate and transport, weathering and degradation, and occurrence of microplastics.

John Scott (top) addresses Andrew Turner (bottom) and his students (not pictured). Photo credit: Perry Akrie

We also met with Rob Arnold, a colleague of Dr. Turner’s. Rob is an artist and activist on the topic of ocean pollution. He brought some of his collection of plastics that he has found washed up on the shore. This included a collection of vintage toothbrushes, assorted toys, and food wrappers, as well as a collection he affectionately refers to as “wedgies,” bits of plastic which have had other bits of plastic wedged into them in their travels through the ocean. Some of his most well-known art includes a 5.5-foot sculpture in the shape of the Moai statues of Easter Island that is made entirely of plastic waste. You see more of his art on Instagram (@rob.arnold.art).

Rob Turner displays his collection of microplastics found on beaches around England. Photo credit: Perry Akrie

We then traveled to the University of Birmingham to meet with members of the BRIDGE Birmingham-Illinois Partnership. This partnership has been in place since 2014. It allows both universities to exchange knowledge across disciplines through face-to-face meetings between faculty, staff, and students. As part of this program, Kate Rowley and Sophie Comer-Warner, students from the University of Birmingham, will be visiting ISTC to further their research.

The group from the University of Illinois included ISTC chemist John Scott, geology professor Jim Best, assistant professor of civil engineering Rafael Omar Tinoco Lopez, and and myself. We met with ecohydrology and biogeochemistry professor Stefan Krause and hydrology professor David Hannah from the University of Birmingham. We gave feedback on short presentations made by the students from Birmingham on topics that included transport of tire wear particles, biodegradation of microplastics in soils, and microplastics response to rainfall events.

BRIDGE meeting with researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham. Photo credit: Perry Akrie
BRIDGE meeting with researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham. Photo credit: Perry Akrie

The next day, we were taken on a tour of the preparation and analysis labs. Some of the most impressive facilities there were EcoLab and the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF).

EcoLab is a versatile open-air facility that hosts an array of experiments from many disciplines. Researchers in our host lab group have used it to study how microplastics are transported through water.

EcoLab includes a series of flumes that facilitate studies on the interaction between water, soils, plants, and other contaminants.
EcoLab includes a series of flumes that facilitate studies on the interaction between water, soils, plants, and other contaminants. Photo credit: Perry Akrie

The NBIF’s main feature is a 25m x 10m x 5m pit that can be split into smaller sections and filled with various structures, soils, and sensors related to several potential research questions. The sky is the limit for this one-of-a-kind facility.

The blocks at the far end of the NBIF pit are for building partitions
The blocks at the far end of the NBIF pit are for building partitions. Photo credit: Perry Akrie

ISTC scientist is set to develop technology addressing water contaminated with PFAS

Man-made per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), known as “forever chemicals,” withstand many treatment options and bioaccumulate in the environment, posing serious environmental and health concerns. With a three-year, nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) scientists are developing a new technology to remove and destroy PFAS from contaminated water using a designer biochar produced from woody biomass or agricultural residues such as corn stalks and cobs.

PFAS are a widely used class of chemicals found in many different consumer, commercial, and industrial products, including non-stick coatings and textiles. Since the 1970s, PFAS have also been used in firefighting foam, which is why the DOD is interested in finding new solutions to clean up contaminated sites where firefighters have trained, according to Wei Zheng, principal investigator of the project at ISTC, a unit of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Activated carbon, as a most common adsorbent, is typically used to treat PFAS-containing water. Once the activated carbon is saturated with the contaminants, the spent adsorbent is incinerated. However, incineration, even done at sufficiently high temperatures, cannot completely destruct PFAS and will create some hazardous and toxic byproducts. In 2022, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Defense placed a temporary ban on incineration of materials containing PFAS until safe guidance for disposal of PFAS is issued.

“If incineration is not an option, the spent adsorbent ends up in the landfill where PFAS can leach to water sources and evaporate to air because they won’t degrade,” Zheng said. “So, PFAS will go back to the environment. In this way we just solve one issue but generate a new problem.”

In addition, wastewater treatment plants can’t solve the PFAS issue because these contaminants are never destroyed by conventional treatment techniques. That is why they are called forever chemicals.

In the new project, Zheng will develop a hydrothermal technology, likened to pressure cooking, that will destroy PFAS absorbed on low-cost designer biochar created at ISTC, and at the same time reactivate the biochar that has reached its sorption capacity for reuse. Thus, the designer biochar will act a double role as an adsorbent to remove PFAS from contaminated water and as a catalyst to destroy these compounds under a hydrothermal system. 

“The most important and innovative aspect of the project will be the complete destruction of PFAS once they are removed from the water,” Zheng said. “PFAS are widely detected in the environment and in the atmosphere. Our project is designed to mitigate human exposure to PFAS, helping to find ways to indeed solve this problem.”

ISTC is collaborating with researchers at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory on this project.

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Media contact: Wei Zheng, 217-333-7276, weizheng@illinois.edu
news@prairie.illinois.edu

Lee Green, chemist

Lee Green is a chemist in the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center’s Applied Research on Industrial and Environmental Systems (ARIES) group. She studies persistent contaminants, specializing in microplastics and PFAS. Scientists are just beginning to discover the impacts that these contaminants have on the human body and the environment.

Lee recently answered some questions about her work.

In one sentence what do you do?
I research persistent contaminants in the environment, specifically microplastics and PFAS.

What is your educational background/areas of expertise?
I have a degree in biology, worked for Abbott labs for five years, then moved, and have been doing different analytical jobs since moving here to Champaign. It’s kind of funny how it worked out because I always thought I’d be doing medical or cancer research, but life takes you in a different direction sometimes, especially if you’re open-minded.

How does your work at ISTC impact Illinois and the world?
The microplastics research is eye-opening for people in general as far as how widespread they are. They’re in our foods and water and our waterways, and people don’t realize how prevalent they are. I hope somewhere down the road we can figure out how to start cleaning up the microplastics or taking control of the issue and bringing light to recycling. There’s still so much research that needs to be done. It’s literally everywhere in things that we use on a daily basis. There’s still not a lot of data out there on the potential health risks as well.

What is the best part of your job at the ISTC?
I love the fact that we’re constantly looking at new projects. Right now we’re looking at microplastics and next, depending on who we collaborate with, we might be working on PFAS. I’m working on a project funded by ISTC’s Hazardous Waste Research Fund (HWRF) that looks at wastewater and how microplastics are transported through the system. I like how you get a different flair of research projects, so it’s never the same thing over and over again. I like the diversity. And the people, I like the people I work with, they make it fun. There’s a lot of great ideas floating around. Not just the projects I work on, but the other projects and seeing how they all collaborate and come together.

What work/project/outcome are you most proud of?
Probably the microplastics projects we’re working on now, even though we’re in the middle of some of these projects. It’s such a hot topic and I think the more work we do the more we see how broad of a problem it is and how it affects people on so many levels. We haven’t published any major papers yet, but I can see that coming in the future. We know a lot about PFAS, how they act, and where they’re found, but microplastics is a whole new world of where to go next. They’re even starting to look at human effects like in the lungs and the tissue and how it is transported in the body. Does our body get rid of that or does it bioaccumulate over time? No one really knows.

What are common misconceptions about your field?
People are always like “Wow you must be really smart then, right?” It’s fun, I really enjoy running the instruments and finding something that you didn’t know was going to be there so it’s funny because people’s reactions are always different.

How old were you when you first became interested in science and what sparked your interest?
It was definitely my junior year in high school. I think I was in anatomy and physiology or biology and I think it was my biology teacher back then, Mr. Kurt Kreiter, who made it so fun. That was a huge spark for me. He made science really interesting and ever since then I’ve been interested in biology and the human body.

When you aren’t doing science what else do you like to do?
I love to golf. I like to bike and cook, go for walks, cruise around in my convertible, and do fun things in nature. Yardwork, taking care of the garden, we just put up a birdfeeder, so nature in general.

What is your favorite tool to use in your everyday work?
Sample prep and analytical analysis. I like to work with my hands and figure out how to process the samples and then run them on the instruments and figure out all the concentrations. I really like the hands-on and analytical aspects of my job.

Is there a particular analytical tool that you like to use?
I’m just learning how to run our new LC-MS (Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometer), so that’s exciting, but I’ve always been a fan of the ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer). There’s just something about seeing the concentrations and figuring out if it’s a good or bad number or “well we really shouldn’t be seeing that in this piece of plastic”. It’s interesting to digest the plastic and see some of the chemicals that used to be used in plastics.

What is your work uniform?
I typically wear jeans, tennis shoes and a t-shirt. But obviously, in the lab we wear lab coats and glasses depending on the chemicals we’re using but we’re pretty casual, which is awesome.

This story originally appeared on the People of PRI blog. Read the original story.

Illinois Farm to Food Bank Feasibility Study report now available online

Cover page of Farm to Food Bank report

As reported in previous posts, the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center Technical Assistance Program (TAP) has been collaborating with Feeding Illinois, the Illinois Farm Bureau, the Illinois Specialty Growers Association, and other stakeholders to explore ways to reduce food waste from farms while also recovering nutritious fresh foods to increase the state’s food supply and help citizens facing food insecurity.

Recently, project partners released the initial feasibility study report from the first year of this project, entitled Exploring the Development of an Illinois Farm to Food Bank Program. The report is available in IDEALS, the University of Illinois’ institutional repository.

Through interviews, surveys, focus groups, and pilot projects it became clear that a Farm to Food Bank program would be welcomed by both the farming and food banking communities in Illinois. Such programs are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations [at 7 CFR 251.10(j)] as “the harvesting, processing, packaging, or transportation of unharvested, unprocessed, or unpackaged commodities donated by agricultural producers, processors, or distributors for use by Emergency Feeding Organizations (EFOs)” – i.e., hunger relief agencies. Several such programs exist throughout the United States, though not in every state (for examples, see the “Lessons from Other Farm to Food Bank Programs” section of this report). While commonly referred to as Farm to Food Bank, these programs can also operate as Farm to Food Pantry programs.

While this is an ongoing research project, this report serves to demonstrate research efforts undertaken from December 2020 – February 2022 that have led to this conclusion along with identifying strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities, and recommendations for a statewide Farm to Food Bank program.

Recommendations for 2022 and beyond include the following:

Three essential aspects of a farm to food bank program1. A Farm to Food Bank program should have three primary goals:
➢ Support farmers by providing a secondary market for off-grade and  surplus products.
➢ Increase access to local, nutritious foods.
➢ Reduce food waste/surplus on farms and associated energy and resources.

2. Equity must be an essential part of the program.
3. Seek out partnerships with existing aggregation and processing centers.
4. Seek out partnerships with new food pantries.
5. Make Feeding Illinois and their member food banks a staple at ag-focused and food access events.
6. Increase communication between food banks.
7. Ensure buy-in from food banks and food pantries.
8. Improve capacity and resources at the food pantries.
9. Connect a Farm to Food Bank program with existing
technology platforms.
10. Diversify funding sources. Develop an advocacy plan to pursue public and private support.
11. Establish an advisory board to guide the actions of the Farm to Food Bank program.
12. Develop guidance and educational programs for farmers.
13. Measure success by more than just pounds of donated food.
14. Hire a dedicated employee to manage the Farm to Food Bank program.
15. Adapt the program as needed.
16. Continue piloting Farm to Food Bank strategies around the state.

While these recommendations can serve to guide Farm to Food Bank efforts, further research is needed to uncover opportunities and test collection and distribution strategies. ISTC and Feeding Illinois will collaborate to continue this research for the remainder of 2022 into 2023. The project team will continue outreach and engagement efforts to both increase participation and gather feedback on the program. They will also continue to work with Rendleman Orchards, which participated in the first pilot project of the study, as well as conducting additional pilot projects. In the coming year, ISTC and Feeding Illinois will also work with farmers markets around the state to test aggregation strategies.

Read more about this project on the “Project Descriptions” section of the TAP website.

Technology to absorb CO₂ at power plants is promising

ISTC engineer Paul Nielsen stands beside the biphasic solvent system at the Abbott Power Plant.
ISTC engineer Paul Nielsen stands beside the biphasic solvent system at the Abbott Power Plant.

Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) researchers have given the thumbs up to an innovative biphasic solvent system for its efficiency and effectiveness in absorbing CO₂ from flue gas in a coal-fired power plant at the University of Illinois (U of I).

With $3.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory, an ISTC team sought to validate the various advantages of a biphasic CO₂ absorption process (BiCAP) at a 40-kilowatt electric small pilot scale at the Abbott Power Plant on the U of I campus. The system was designed based on the testing results at the laboratory scale under a previous DOE cooperative agreement.

Previous laboratory testing has proved the biphasic solvent-based process concept and has shown that the technique can achieve greater than 90 percent capture efficiency and greater than 95 percent CO₂ purity and has the potential to significantly increase energy efficiency and reduce  CO₂ capture cost.

From the recent field testing, the team verified that their technology could achieve 95 percent efficiency in CO₂ capture, compared with 90 percent in conventional methods, with a 40 percent higher energy efficiency. The cost advantages have not yet been determined, but previous laboratory testing showed a 26 percent cost reduction. The system has also been shown to run continuously for two weeks, verifying that it can operate under Midwest winter weather conditions.

“The conventional CO₂ capture process has several disadvantages, and our goal was to reduce the carbon footprint and costs and increase the energy efficiency,” said Yongqi Lu, principal investigator. “These energy-efficiency advantages of the BiCAP system, coupled with reduced equipment sizes when scaled up for commercial systems, will lead to reductions in both capital and operating expenses.”

The BiCAP method uses biphasic solvent blends that can form and develop dual-liquid phases during CO₂ absorption. The solvents, which were tested and selected in previous DOE-funded studies, are highly resistant to degrading from either high temperatures or oxidative atmospheres. Also, less solvent is required for this process.

Although the focus of the study was on CO₂ capture from flue gas at coal-fired power plants, the BiCAP technology can be used in natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants as well, incorporating flue gas from natural gas, biomass, plastics, and other renewable materials.

“The exciting feature of this capture technology is its robust nature and ability to be used on a variety of flue gas sources. We are now ready for commercial partners to assist in moving this technology to the marketplace,” said Kevin OBrien, co-principal investigator for the project and director of ISTC.

Preliminary tests with synthetic NGCC flue gas made of air and bottled CO2 gas have been performed on the small pilot unit recently. Results revealed that a 95 percent CO2 removal rate could be achieved, and the energy use only slightly increased compared with that for the coal flue gas that contains more concentrated CO2.

The concept of biphasic solvents was developed as part of a dissertation research project in 2013–2015. From 2015 through 2018, screening of biphasic solvents and studies of proof of the BiCAP process concept were conducted at the laboratory scale with funding from DOE. After that, the small pilot system was designed, constructed, and tested at the Abbott Power Plant with continued DOE support.

The main research team for this project was transferred from the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) to ISTC in January 2022. Now that the team has collected the data, the next steps are to complete a techno-economic analysis, then scale-up the technology for commercial use.

Media contact: Yongqi Lu, 217-244-4985, yongqilu@illinois.edu or
news@prairie.illinois.edu

This story first appeared on the Prairie Research Institute News Blog. Read the original story.

Microplastics on the move: Research projects detect microplastics in water and on land

Microplastics

The mind-boggling amount of microplastics in the environment is becoming a greater concern as early studies suggest serious health effects from human exposure to the plastic particles. Taking these effects seriously, the United Nations recently endorsed a historic resolution to end global plastic pollution, including microplastics.

At the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), researcher John Scott is studying microplastics in landfills, rural streams, and city drinking water to further understand where they are coming from and how they move in the environment.

Illinois landfills and microplastics

Since about 80 percent of all plastic waste is destined for landfills, they are a logical place to look for microplastics. Landfills that use plastic liners underneath the waste piles routinely pump out leachate, the waste “soup” that has drained into the liners. The leachate is sent to wastewater treatment plants, which are not designed to handle plastic waste.

As a result, plastic entering water treatment plants can end up either in the treated wastewater, where it is ultimately discharged to rivers or lakes, or in the sludge, called biosolids. Scott’s team has found that 99 percent of microplastics are in the biosolids, which are typically applied to agricultural lands as fertilizer. This means that microplastics taken from landfills are released back into the environment.

In this project, the researchers hypothesized that landfill leachate is the most significant source of microplastics taken to wastewater treatment plants. They compared the contribution of microplastics in leachate with other potential sources.

Although the study is still ongoing, the significance of this finding is that, although it is not feasible to treat the enormous amount of wastewater that comes into a treatment plant every day, treating the smaller amount of leachate may be an option.

“If our hypothesis is correct, then addressing plastic pollution in landfill leachate may be a more efficient and cost-effective way to reduce its environmental loading,” Scott said. “It’s better to treat the waste further upstream.”

The project has been funded by the Illinois Hazardous Research Fund.

Rural Iowa streams

ISTC is partnering with the University of Iowa and the U.S. Geological Survey in the first statewide assessment of microplastics and co-contaminants in rural Iowa streams. Most research studies to date have focused on microplastics in ocean habitats. In contrast, the research team sampled stream water, fish tissues, and rural sediments for this study. They also examined the samples for other contaminants, such as herbicides and insecticides, pharmaceuticals, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Some of the sediment samples have the highest concentrations of microplastics that they’ve ever seen, said Scott. With the methodology they designed in 2020, they can detect microplastics as small as 20 micrometers, while other researchers are limited to 100-micrometer sizes.

More microplastics appeared in the soil sediments than in the streams and fish tissues.

“Some of the concentrations of microplastics we found in samples were astronomical,” Scott said. “If concentrations for other contaminants approached that percentage level in the soil, it would raise an alarm. Microplastics may not be as toxic as other contaminants, but when there is this much stuff loading into out sediments, the concentrations will get worse over time.”

These findings support the theory that most of the microplastics that go to the wastewater treatment plants end up in biosolids and are released into soils in agricultural areas.

One objective of the study is to investigate the relationship of microplastics to sediments and other contaminants, such as PFAS. Microplastics can harbor exotic bacteria that are much different from that in the surrounding environment. Previous studies have shown that contaminants concentrate on these materials at hundreds of times the background levels.

In addition, studies have shown that microplastics as small as 20 micrometers can be taken up by plants.

“We don’t know if microplastics affect agricultural land, but if we load enough into our soils, it’s going to have some adverse effects, like trying to grow plants in plastic,” Scott said.

St. Louis city and county drinking water  

In a new three-year project, ISTC researchers’ role will be to investigate micro- and nano-plastics and other contaminants in surface waters, water treatment plants, and in tap water samples from residential households in St. Louis. Nanoplastics are particles that are even smaller than microplastics and are not visible to the naked eye or even under a simple optical microscope.

It is known that surface waters contain microplastics, but less is known about water distribution systems in the home and from water treatment facilities. Scott plans to trace microplastics found at water supply plants back to water distribution systems to determine if water softeners, dishwashers, and household plumbing can also be sources of microplastics.

Scott said he doesn’t expect to find microplastics originating from these sources, implying that in terms of microplastics, tap water is safer than bottled water, which contains large amounts of the plastic specks.

These efforts will be part of a larger project to determine an impact baseline for those contaminants in St. Louis city and county water systems, to survey community members to obtain their perceptions of drinking water quality, and to provide hot-spot mapping and policy recommendations for clean water investments and regulations.

Findings from the project will be provided to local water utility companies to begin to address micro- and nanoplastics in city water systems. Project partners also hope to promote equitable investments in clean water infrastructure.

The project is funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health. ISTC’s partners are Mixte Communications, Waterkeeper Alliance, and LH Consulting.

Because roadways are suspected to be another major contributor to microplastics pollution, Scott will soon begin another project, this one focused on microplastics in Michigan lakes that are highly affected by road salt.

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Media contact: John Scott, 217-333-8407, zhewang@illinois.edu
news@prairie.illinois.edu


This story originally appeared on the Prairie Research Institute News Blog. Read the original story.

How can Illinois address the problem of PFAS pollution?

John Scott - senior analytical chemist, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
John Scott, a senior chemist with the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, says per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are widespread, long-lasting and extremely difficult to remove from the environment. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

by Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor, U of I News Bureau