Cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) installation of plastic pipes is common method to repair sewers and water supply pipes. The installation procedure involves the chemical manufacture of a new plastic pipe inside of a damaged pipe by blowing hot air or steam through a resin-coated pipe liner, resulting in uncontrolled discharge of organic compounds into atmospheric environment. Our recent study discovered that the discharged waste contains large amounts of micro- and nanoplastics. This presentation will focus on the detailed chemical composition of the micro- and nanoplastic particles from the discharged waste, which are compared to the chemical composition of bulk uncured and cured plastic materials used by CIPP. We employed multi-modal characterization of micro- and nanoplastic particles using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, scanning transmission x-ray microscopy, single particle laser ablation time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and direct analysis in real-time high-resolution mass spectrometry. Obtained results indicate that the microplastic particles found in the discharged waste were pieces of cured material shed from pipe installation, while nanoplastic particles were formed from unintended polymerization reactions occurring in drying water droplets of the waste plume.

Chemical composition of micro- and nanoplastic particles emitted from sewer pipe repairs

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