Virus Attachment and Release Processes in Saturated Porous Media under Transient Chemical Conditions

Abstract

The effect of pH, ionic strength (IS) and calcium on virus transport is known to play a large role in virus removal. This study builds upon recent work by Sadeghi (2012), which studied the effect of hydrochemical conditions on virus fate and transport. Through experimental column studies using bacteriophage PRD1, Sadeghi (2012) found that virus attachment processes could be quantitatively described by changes to IS, pH and calcium. However, no correlation between chemical conditions and the coefficient for kinetic detachment were found. In this study, the effect of calcium on attachment processes was explored at pH 6, thus expanding on the work of Sadeghi et al. (2012), which was conducted at pH 7. A 3-D sigmoidal relationship was found to relate pH, calcium concentration, and sticking efficiency at a constant IS of 10. Additionally, the effect of hydrochemical step-changes in calcium and IS were included, with the purpose of quantifying instantaneous step-changes to virus transport processes. Through modeling of the remobilization processes, it was shown that the coefficient for kinetic detachment could be modeled as a function of changing IS and calcium conditions with respect to time.