Investigation of Microplastic Contents in Satun UNESCO Global Geopark

The research project focuses on investigating microplastics in the environmental samples including seawater, beach sediment, and wastewater in 3 areas located on UNESCO Satun Geopark Area in Satun Province, Thailand : Lipe Island, Sarai Island, and Kumpang municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal center, a waste disposal site for Satun Global Geopark Area. The method of microplastic analysis was also developed using Fourier - Transform Infrared Spectroscopy – Microscopy (FTIR Microscopy) technique. Furthermore, the water quality in the wastewater treatment system of Kumpang MSW disposal center was investigated.

Aopeau Imvittaya is currently a scientist at professional level at Department of Science Service which is a government testing laboratory located in Bangkok, Thailand. She has worked in Plastic Product Group, Engineering Material Division since 2019. Before that, she worked as a chemical analyst at Chemistry Division for over a decade. During working at Department of Science Service, she got a scholarship from Thai government to study abroad and then pursued her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Florida State University. In 2022, she and her team received a funding from National Research Council of Thailand for the research project of Investigation of Microplastic and Metal Contents in Satun UNESCO Global Geopark. In 2024, Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B), Thailand has agreed to fund her trip to Australia for training in the area of microplastic analysis by using Pyrolysis GC-MS at QAEHS, UQ.