Abstract
Virus contamination of water is a threat to human health in many countries. Current solutions for inactivation of viruses mainly rely on environmentally burdensome chemical oxidation or energy-intensive ultraviolet irradiation, which may create toxic secondary products. Here, we show that renewable plant biomass-sourced colloidal lignin particles (CLPs) can be used as agglomeration agents to facilitate removal of viruses from water. We used dynamic light scattering (DLS), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (AFM, TEM), and UV spectrophotometry to quantify and visualize adherence of cowpea chlorotic mottle viruses (CCMVs) on CLPs. Our results show that CCMVs form agglomerated complexes with CLPs that, unlike pristine virus particles, can be easily removed from water either by filtration or centrifugation. Additionally, cationic particles formed by adsorption of quaternary amine-modified softwood kraft lignin on the CLPs were also evaluated to improve the binding interactions with these anionic viruses. We foresee that due to their moderate production cost, and high availability of lignin as a side-stream from biorefineries, CLPs could be an alternative water pretreatment material in a large variety of systems such as filters, packed columns, or flocculants.
Highlights
Limited access to clean water is a human health concern, which is intensifying due to fast population growth and climate change.[1−3] Today, contamination of natural water resources with chemical or biological pollutants from human activities induces sickness and death in countries with limited access to potable water.[4]
The objective of this work was to understand the nature of the interactions between the colloidal lignin particles and the viruses in order to evaluate the feasibility of using CLPs for virus removal
The cationic lignin solution was a water-soluble fraction resulting from the cationization of kraft lignin, and cationic lignin particles (c-CLPs) were prepared by adsorption of water-soluble cationic lignin onto CLPs.[67]
Summary
Limited access to clean water is a human health concern, which is intensifying due to fast population growth and climate change.[1−3] Today, contamination of natural water resources with chemical or biological pollutants from human activities induces sickness and death in countries with limited access to potable water.[4]. Their use releases toxic components such as aldehydes, ketones, and chlorite/chlorate ions into the treated water.[1,6−10] Alternative physical methods such as UV irradiation require high energy input from mixing of water due to the short penetration depth of the UV light, while pasteurization is not feasible in large-scale water treatment due to the high energy input needed for heating the water to the boiling point.[1] Photovoltaic systems coupled to solar disinfection is a promising water purification technique, but large-scale utilization is limited by meteorological conditions and the high-cost of photovoltaic technologies.[11−13] The low efficiency of many water purification methods is due to the high resistance of some microorganisms such as thermophilic and sporulating bacteria This issue becomes even more significant when viruses are targeted.[14] antimicrobial nanomaterials[15] such as gold nanoparticles,[16] zerovalent iron,[17] carbon nanotubes,[18] or copper nanofibers containing titanium dioxide,[19] or nanoparticles (NPs) made of silver or iron/ nickel,[6,20−22] have been studied for virus inactivation. The presence of these nanoscaled substances in treated water poses a new concern of nanotoxicity.[16,21,23,24]
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