Recent advances in aqueous virus removal technologies

Abstract

The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a massive research, but still urgent detection and treatment of this virus seems a public concern. The spread of viruses in aqueous environments underlined efficient virus treatment processes as a hot challenge. This review critically and comprehensively enables identifying and classifying advanced biochemical, membrane-based and disinfection processes for effective treatment of virus-contaminated water and wastewater. Understanding the functions of individual and combined/multi-stage processes in terms of manufacturing and economical parameters makes this contribution a different story from available review papers. Moreover, this review discusses challenges of combining biochemical, membrane and disinfection processes for synergistic treatment of viruses in order to reduce the dissemination of waterborne diseases. Certainly, the combination technologies are proactive in minimizing and restraining the outbreaks of the virus. It emphasizes the importance of health authorities to confront the outbreaks of unknown viruses in the future.

Keywords: Disinfection; Membrane; Virus removal; Wastewater treatment.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Schematic of human exposure to virus contamination by accidental ingestion and inhalation throughout environmental pollution, partially adapted from (Ogilvie et al., 2013; Xagoraraki et al., 2014; Fanourakis et al., 2020; Van Gaelen et al., 2020) (Designed by the authors of the present work).

Fig. 2

(A) Schematic of transportation of water and removal of pollutants in porous membranes in a pressure-driven filtration process; and (B) Comparison of different membrane technologies (Designed by the authors of the present work).

Fig. 3

Scheme of electrically-enhanced membrane reactor technologies for wastewater treatment (Designed by the authors of the present work).

Fig. 4

Application of microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis technologies for the removal of different pollutants (including virus and bacteria) in wastewater treatment (Designed by the authors of the present work).

Fig. 5

Miscellaneous materials/techniques as well as mechanisms controlling fouling in membranes via modification techniques (designed by the authors of the present work).

Fig. 6

(A) Schematic of combining three-stage physical, biological, and physicochemical processes in various technologies for virus removal performance in wastewater treatment, partially adapted from (Guo et al., 2015; Bray et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2021c) (B) Schematic of combination of MBR and disinfection technologies for efficient virus removal in wastewater treatment (Designed by the authors of the present work).