Sorption and Transport of Viruses in Porous Media
Collaborators: Y. Jin (University of Delaware)
Previous studies suggest that sorption of colloidal particles onto the air-water interface is an important mechanism for enhanced retention and retardation during transport in unsaturated systems. In this study, bacteriophages (X174 and MS-2, and Br-) tracer were introduced into sand columns of various water contents as a step function under constant flow rates. The results showed that, when a reactive (water-washed) sand was used, the retention of both (X174 and MS-2 increased significantly at low water saturation levels. However, when an “inert” (metals and metal oxides removed) sand was used the effect of water content was minimal, although observable. These results suggest that in the presence of reactive solid surfaces, increased reactions at the solid-water interface, rather than at the air-water interface, dominates in virus removal and transport under unsaturated conditions. A model that incorporated reactions at both the solid-water and air-water interfaces was developed and successfully applied to the data.
Publications
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Buchan, G.D., and M. Flury, Pathogen transport by water, in Encyclopedia of Water Science, edited by B.A. Stewart, and T.A.
Howell, doi: 10.1081/E-EWS 120021169, Marcel Dekker, New York, 2004.
- Jin, Y., and M. Flury, Fate and Transport of Viruses in Porous Media, Adv. Agron.,
77, 39-102, 2002.
- Chu, Y., Y. Jin, M. Flury, and M.V. Yates, Mechanisms of Virus removal during transport in unsaturated porous media, Water Resour. Res., 37, 253-263, 2001.
- Flury, M., and W.A. Jury, Solute transport with resident-time-dependent
sink/source reaction coefficients, Water Resour. Res., 35, 1933-1938, 1999.
- Flury, M., Q.J. Wu, L. Wu, and L. Xu, Analytical solution for solute transport with depth-dependent transformation or sorption coefficients, Water Resour. Res., 34, 2931-2937, 1998.
- Thompson, S.S., M. Flury, M.V. Yates, and W.A. Jury, Role of the
air-water-solid interface in bacteriophage sorption experiments, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 64, 304-309, 1998.
Markus Flury 
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