Adsorption and Removing of Virus by Sand and Modified Sand with Metallic Hydroxide

The efficiency of adsorption and removing Poliovirus 1(PV1) and bacteroides fragilis phage(B.fp) by nature and modified sand in the conditions of different environment pH, various mental salts and concentration variation, exist of humic acid in tap and distilled water were studied in this paper. The results showed: the lower pH of the water sample, the higher efficiency of natural sand adsorbed viruses. When natural sand was modified by hydroxide aluminum and hydroxide iron sinked to the sand surface and accumulated, the ability of modified sand absorption viruses was higher in neutral pH. Natural sand adsorbed viruses increasing with the presence of metal cations, their contents and valence, but this positive role was not clear to modified sand adsorption viruses. The humic acid also had different influence regulation to natural and modified sand adsorbed viruses. Modified sand was not affected by humic acid, but natural sand adsorbed viruses would be reduced due to humic acid. The reason why the two kinds of sand had different ability adsorbed viruses may be due to the obviously different sand surface construction according to viewing the scanning electron microscope. The ability of natural and modified sand adsorb viruses was higher in distilled water than that in tap water at any experiment conditions. The results of these experiments showed the modified sand by metal hydroxide can provide a higher viruses removing efficiency way for the traditional drinking water treatment craft. The results also showed that the abilities of natural sand and modified sand adsorbed PV1 were higher than that of B.fp at any conditions of adsorption, in other words, the rate of removing PV1 was faster than B.fp. This behavior demonstrates that B.fp is a more suitable index creature used indicates virus’s inactivation.