Analytical models for virus adsorption and inactivation in unsaturated porous media

Abstract

Analytical models for virus adsorption and inactivation in batch systems of homogeneous, isothermal, unsaturated porous media were developed. The models account for virus sorption onto liquid–solid as well as air–liquid interfaces and inactivation of viruses in the liquid phase and at both interfaces. Mathematical expressions appropriate for virus sorption onto liquid–solid and air–liquid interfaces were developed as functions of the soil moisture variation. The models were solved analytically by Laplace transform procedures. The effects of soil moisture variation on virus sorption at the liquid–solid as well as air–liquid interfaces were investigated. Available experimental data from virus adsorption-inactivation batch studies were successfully simulated by one of the models developed in this work.