• Changes in Microplastic Characteristics throughout the Riverbank Filtration Process

  • Yukyung Oh, Dongguen Lee, Sunghyen Cho*, Young-Kyu Lee, and TeaSeoung Kim

  • National Instrumentation Center for Environmental Management (NICEM), Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea

  • 강변여과수 공정에 따른 미세플라스틱 검출 특성 연구

  • 오유경ㆍ이동근ㆍ조성현*ㆍ이영규ㆍ김태승

  • 서울대학교 농생명과학공동기기원

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This study evaluated the behavior of microplastics (MPs) in a riverbank filtration (RBF) system using radial collector wells. To ensure sampling representativeness, large-volume sampling (20~100 L) with five replicates was conducted, utilizing median values for comparison. The μ-FT-IR results revealed a discrepancy between particle count and surface area; while raw water was dominated by small particles, RBF water exhibited a significant increase in surface area within larger size classes. Notably, PTFE accounted for 83% of the total MP area in RBF water, alongside facility-related polymers (PA, PMMA, and POM) absent in raw water. These findings indicate that the mechanical wear of internal components, such as pumps and seals, serves as a secondary source of MPs. This study underscores the necessity of surface area-based assessments and the management of infrastructure-derived MPs in water treatment processes.


Keywords: Microplastic, Riverbank filtration (RBF), Large-volume sampling, PTFE, surface area-based assessments

This Article

  • 2026; 31(1): 18-27

    Published on Feb 28, 2026

  • 10.7857/JSGE.2026.31.1.018
  • Received on Dec 29, 2025
  • Revised on Jan 7, 2026
  • Accepted on Feb 3, 2026

Correspondence to

  • Sunghyen Cho

  • National Instrumentation Center for Environmental Management (NICEM), Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea

  • E-mail: sunghc@snu.ac.kr