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27.11.2024

How to remove microplastics from drinking water

If you are concerned about microplastics in drinking water, Chinese researchers from Guangzhou Medical University have a good tip for you. First boil the water and then let it run through a coffee filter. As a result, you lose a large part of the microplastics. This is evident from a Chinese study that was published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters in February 2024.

Study
The researchers added polystyrene microplastics to clean drinking water. Then they heated the water. The Chinese suspected that heating the microplastics would form large particles that they could purify from the water via a simple filter.

Results
By heating to 100 degrees and filtering, the researchers were able to remove more than 80 percent of the microplastics, the figure below shows. This relates to tests with water that contained 1180 milligrams of calcium carbonate per liter.

Boiling water only removes microplastics from water if it also contains calcium. The more calcium carbonate in the water, the more microplastics disappear by boiling and then filtering from the water.

The concentration of calcium carbonate in drinking water differs per region. Here you will find a list that gives an impression per country of the concentration of calcium carbonate in drinking water - and therefore also the reduction in the concentration of microplastics that is possible.

By the way, drinking water in the US and Europe still contains relatively few microplastics. However, this is not the case in Africa, South America and the Asian continent.

Source:
Environ. Sci. Technol. Lttrs. 2024, 11 (3), 273-9.

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