Bacteriophage removal in various clay minerals and clay-amended soils

The aim of this study was to investigate the bacteriophage removal in various clay minerals and clay-amended soils. Batch experiments in kaolinite, montmorillonite, and bentonite showed that kaolinite was far more effective at the MS2 removal than montmorillonite and bentonite. In kaolinite, the log removal increased from 0.046 to 2.18, with an increase in the adsorbent dose from 0.3 to 50 g L-1, whereas the log removals in montmorillonite and bentonite increased from 0.007 to 0.40 and from 0.012 to 0.59, respectively. The MS2 removal in kaolinite-amended silt loam soils was examined at three different soil-to-solution (STS) ratios. Results indicated that the log removal of MS2 increased with an increase in the kaolinite content and the STS ratio. At the STS ratio of 1:10, the log removal of MS2 increased from 2.33 to 2.80 with an increase in the kaolinite content from 0% to 10% in kaolinite-amended soils. The log removals of MS2 at the STS ratios of 1:2 and 1:1 increased from 2.84 to 3.47 and from 3.46 to 4.76, respectively, with an increase in the kaolinite content from 0% to 10%. Results also indicated that the log removals of PhiX174 and Qβ in kaolinite-amended soils were similar to each other, but they were far lower than those of MS2 at all the kaolinite contents. The log removal of PhiX174 increased from 0.16 to 0.32, whereas the log removal of Qβ changed from 0.17 to 0.22 with an increase in the kaolinite content from 0% to 10%. KCI Citation Count: 5