review · RSC Advances
Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical commonly present in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, with widespread contamination in water environments. In the human body, exposure leads to cellular changes in the brain linked to behavioural issues, endocrine disruption, reduced fertility, and vulnerability to substance dependence. To counter water contamination, several remediation strategies are available, including biological breakdown by bacteria, membrane filtration, adsorption, coagulation, ozonation, and photocatalysis. Bacterial action generates intermediates and products with reduced toxicity, while chemical and physical methods successfully break down the contaminant. However, current technologies often face a trade-off where high removal efficiency compromises processing throughput. Addressing this bottleneck for scalable deployment requires process intensification, combining multiple treatment techniques into integrated systems capable of delivering high degradation rates alongside high throughput.
Bisphenol A is a widespread environmental pollutant that poses severe health risks, including reproductive, neurological, and hormonal damage. Understanding how to neutralise this compound in water supplies is crucial for protecting public health and ecosystems. Highlighting the balance between treatment speed and thoroughness helps guide the design of more effective, large-scale water purification systems capable of removing hazardous plastic additives before they reach communities.
The review targets water treatment operators and environmental engineers addressing industrial effluent and contaminated water bodies. Real-world application remains at a developmental stage: while individual removal methods such as ozonation, filtration, and bacterial treatment are proven, commercial deployment at scale requires developing intensified, hybrid process systems that overcome current trade-offs between throughput and removal efficiency.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Bisphenol A (BPA) raises concerns among the scientific community as it is one of the most widely used compounds in industrial processes and a component of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. In this review, we discuss the mechanism of BPA toxicity in food-grade plastics. Owing to its proliferation in the aqueous environment, we delved into the performance of various biological, physical, and chemical techniques for its remediation. Detailed mechanistic insights into these removal processes are provided. The toxic effects of BPA unravel as changes at the cellular level in the brain, which can result in learning difficulties, increased aggressiveness, hyperactivity, endocrine disorders, reduced fertility, and increased risk of dependence on illicit substances. Bacterial decomposition of BPA leads to new intermediates and products with lower toxicity. Processes such as membrane filtration, adsorption, coagulation, ozonation, and photocatalysis have also been shown to be efficient in aqueous-phase degradation. The breakdown mechanism of these processes is also discussed. The review demonstrates that high removal efficiency is usually achieved at the expense of high throughput. For the scalable application of BPA degradation technologies, removal efficiency needs to remain high at high throughput. We propose the need for process intensification using an integrated combination of these processes, which can solve multiple associated performance challenges.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1039/d4ra05628k
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
