Cited by 45Adsorption and biosorption for pollutant removalEnvironmental remediation with nanomaterialsRecycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production

Insights into using plastic waste to produce activated carbons for wastewater treatment applications: A review

Open access
Pereira, Ledicia, Castillo, Ventura, Calero, Mónica, Blázquez, Gabriel, Solís, Rafael R., Martín-Lara, M. Ángeles·2024·Journal of Water Process Engineering

Abstract

This review explores the potential use of plastic waste for the preparation of activated carbons, which can be used as adsorbent materials to remove contaminants from water. Using discarded plastics to synthesize activated carbons has several benefits. Firstly, it helps to reduce the plastic waste burden that ends up in landfills and oceans or dumped on roadsides. Secondly, it creates a potential sector for using discarded plastics to treat pollutants further and approaches a closer circular economy scenario for plastics. Polyethylene terephthalate, tire, and plastic mixtures have been the plastic polymers most studied. The superficial area of activated carbons derived from plastic waste chars varies in a wide range, from 0.1 to 2152 m2/g. KOH seems to be the most widespread activated agent used, and the one that leads to the best textural properties. In general, the adsorption capacities of heavy metals were lower than 300 mg/g. On average, plastic waste chars have higher kinetic rates for adsorbing contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) compared to heavy metals. CECs uptake varies from 2 to 659 mg/g. Although the feasibility of developing porous materials is currently under research with promising results for a successful industrial application, some flaws regarding the granulometry, possible leaching, regeneration ability, and costs, among others, have not been addressed yet.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jwpe.2024.105386

Cites

119 of 119 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Waste plastic-derived functional carbon materials, leveraging tunable pore structures and modifiable surface active sites, can significantly enhance tetracycline removal efficiency while reducing secondary pollution risks through synergistic adsorption-catalysis mechanisms.

    “Waste plastic-derived functional carbon materials, leveraging their tunable pore structures and modifiable surface active sites, can significantly enhance TC removal efficiency while reducing secondary pollution risks through synergistic adsorption-catalysis mechanisms [24] .”

    From Functional carbon materials from waste plastics: synthesis and applications (2025) · cites this paper as [24]

    Split into 2 atoms — 1 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. [25][25] S. Kasaoka, Y. Sakata, A. Mimura, H. Yamato, Preparation of activated carbon from various plastics, J. Fuel Soc. Jpn. (1976) 1631 -1640, https://doi.org/ 10.1246/nikkashi.1976.1631. - · DOI
  2. [26][26] S. Kasaoka, Y. Sakata, H. Yamato, T. Nishiyama, Preparation of activated carbon from scrapped poly(vinyl chloride), J. Fuel Soc. Jpn. (1980) 858 -864, https:// doi.org/10.1246/nikkashi.1980.858. - · DOI
  3. [73][73] M. Bernardo, S. Mendes, N. Lapa, M. Gonçalves, B. Mendes, F. Pinto, H. Lopes, I. Fonseca, Removal of lead (Pb 2 + ) from aqueous medium by using chars from copyrolysis, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 409 (2013) 158 -165, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jcis.2013.07.050. -

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Pereira, L., Castillo, V., Calero, M., Blázquez, G., Solís, R. R., & Martín-Lara, M. Á.
Affiliations
Universidad de Granada (ES)
Corresponding author
  • Solís, Rafael R.
  • Martín-Lara, M. Ángeles
Venue
Journal of Water Process Engineering
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2024-05
Volume
62
Pages
105386
ISSN
2214-7144 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4396535848
Cited by
45
References
110
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 4
FWCI
1.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Water Process Engineering (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Institutional Repository of the University of Granada (University of Granada) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Adsorption and biosorption for pollutant removal
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Environmental remediation with nanomaterials
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production
Keywords
plastic waste, activated carbon, wastewater treatment, adsorption, heavy metal removal, emerging contaminants, polyethylene terephthalate, mixed plastic waste, KOH activation, circular economy, adsorbent regeneration, leaching

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review