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The Effect of Critical pH on Virus Fate and Transport in Saturated Porous Medium
Author(s) -
Guan Huade,
SchulzeMakuch Dirk,
Schaffer Steve,
Pillai Suresh D.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2003.tb02408.x
Subject(s) - porous medium , porosity , chemistry , chemical engineering , engineering , organic chemistry
Several viral transport experiments were conducted in a model aquifer l m long, using bacteriophages MS2 and φX174 at various pH (4.6 to 8.3) conditions, to increase our understanding of virus behavior in ground water. The results indicate the existence of a critical pH at which the virus behavior changes abruptly. This is supported by data from field and batch experiments. The critical pH is determined to be 0.5 unit below the highest isoelectric point of the virus and porous medium. When water pH is below the critical pH, the virus has an opposite charge to at least one component of the porous medium, and is almost completely and irreversibly removed from the water. This suggests that electrostatic attraction at a subcritical water pH condition is an important factor controlling virus attenuation in ground water. The concept of critical pH can assist in the design of geologic barriers for preventing viral contamination in ground water.