TITLE:
Virus Removal by Iron Coagulation Processes
AUTHORS:
Djamel Ghernaout, Noureddine Elboughdiri, Badia Ghernaout, Ghulam Abbas Ashraf, Mhamed Benaissa
KEYWORDS:
Viruses, Chemical Coagulation (CC), Enhanced Coagulation (EnC), Electrocoagulation (EC), Electrophoretic Mobility (EM), Natural Organic Matter (NOM)
JOURNAL NAME:
Green and Sustainable Chemistry,
Vol.13 No.3,
August
10,
2023
ABSTRACT: Waterborne viruses account for 30% to 40% of infectious diarrhea, and
some viruses could persevere for some months in nature and move up to 100 m in
groundwater. Using filtration setups, coagulation could lessen virus charges as
an efficient pre-treatment for reducing viruses. This work discusses the
present-day studies on virus mitigation using coagulation in its three versions i.e., chemical coagulation (CC),
enhanced coagulation, and electrocoagulation (EC), and debates the new results
of virus demobilization. The complexity of viruses as bioparticles and the
process of virus demobilization should be adopted, even if the contribution of
permeability in virus sorption and aggregation needs to be clarified. The
information about virion permeability has been evaluated by interpreting
empirical electrophoretic mobility (EM). No practical measures of virion
permeability exist, a clear link between permeability and virion composition
and morphology has not been advanced, and the direct influence of inner virion structures
on surface charge or sorption has yet to be conclusively demonstrated. CC
setups utilizing zero-valent or ferrous iron could be killed by iron oxidation, possibly using EC and electrooxidation (EO) methods.
The oxidants evolution in the iron oxidation method has depicted promising
findings in demobilizing bacteriophage MS2, even if follow-up investigations
employing an elution method are needed to secure that bacteriophage elimination
is related to demobilization rather than sorption. As a perspective, we could
be apt to anticipate virus conduct and determine new bacteriophage surrogates
following subtle aspects such as protein structures or genome size and
conformation. The present discussion’s advantages would extend far beyond an
application in CC—from filtration setups to
demobilization by nanoparticles to modeling virus fate and persistence in
nature.