Enhancement of poliovirus adsorption in wastewater onto activated carbon

The use of physical chemical and other advanced waste treatment methods will probably predominate in future years. The activated carbon process is one of the methods offering the most promise, particularly since it has been found capable of adsorbing a great variety of organic materials including viruses. This investigation was undertaken to gain additional information on virus removal from sewage effluents by activated carbon and methods by which this process could be optimized. The results suggest that virus removal from waste water effluent by activated carbon is greatly improved by maintaining a pH = 3.5 to = 4.5 or by reducing the amount of waste water organics by lime coagulation. In these studies, activated carbon adsorption of organic pollutants from waste water at pH = 4.5 or below was comparable to that at pH = 8. Therefore, pH adjustments to below a pH = 4.5 could be applied to a final polishing column of activated carbon to ensure maximum virus removal as well as removal of other organic pollutants. Additional studies would be required to determine if carbon column operation under acidic conditions is both practical and economically feasible.