Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10397/88307
PIRA download icon_1.1View/Download Full Text
Title: Engineering a microbial ‘trap and release’ mechanism for microplastics removal
Authors: Liu, SY 
Leung, MML 
Fang, JK 
Chua, SL 
Issue Date: 15-Jan-2021
Source: Chemical engineering journal, 15 Jan. 2021, v. 404, 127079
Abstract: Plastics are discarded and accumulated in the environment at an alarming rate. However, their resistance to biodegradation allows them to persist in the environment for prolonged durations. While large plastics are easier to remove, microplastic particles from cosmetics or fragments from larger pieces are extremely difficult to remove from the environment. Furthermore, current techniques such as filters poorly retain microplastics or require harsh chemical treatments in wastewater treatment plants. Hence, microplastics enter the natural environment easily even after effluent treatments, thereby endangering aquatic life and humans who consume seafood. It is imperative to develop sustainable bioaggregation processes to trap microplastics quickly for easier removal from the environment. Here, we showed that microplastics can be trapped and aggregated in the sticky exopolymeric substances (EPS) produced by biofilms. As a proof-of-concept, we engineered a bacterial biofilm with a ‘capture-release mechanism’, whose EPS can first cause bioaggregation of microplastics for easier isolation, followed by an inducible biofilm dispersal mechanism that releases trapped microplastics for downstream resource recovery. We also demonstrated the potential application of the engineered biofilm in mitigating microplastics pollution in seawater samples collected in the vicinity of a sewage outfall. This capture-and-release approach should prove widely applicable to other micropollutants or biofilm-enabled catalysis.
Please refer "Graphical abstract: Schematic illustration of ‘capture-and-release’ mechanism of engineered P. aeruginosa." to publisher pdf.
Keywords: Microplastics
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Biofilms
Bioaccumulation
Exopolymeric substances
Publisher: Elsevier
Journal: Chemical engineering journal 
ISSN: 1385-8947
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.127079
Rights: © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
© 2020. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
The following publication Liu, S. Y., Leung, M. M. -., Fang, J. K. -., & Chua, S. L. (2021). Engineering a microbial ‘trap and release’ mechanism for microplastics removal. Chemical Engineering Journal, 404, 127079 is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.127079.
Appears in Collections:Journal/Magazine Article

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Liu_Engineering_Microbial_Trap.pdfPre-Published version1.65 MBAdobe PDFView/Open
Open Access Information
Status open access
File Version Final Accepted Manuscript
Access
View full-text via PolyU eLinks SFX Query
Show full item record

Page views

287
Last Week
0
Last month
Citations as of Mar 24, 2024

Downloads

160
Citations as of Mar 24, 2024

SCOPUSTM   
Citations

44
Citations as of Mar 29, 2024

WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations

40
Citations as of Mar 28, 2024

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.