High‐Performance Virus Removal Filter Paper for Drinking Water Purification

Abstract

Access to drinking water is one of the greatest global challenges today. In this study, the virus removal properties of mille‐feuille nanocellulose‐based filter papers of varying thicknesses from simulated waste water (SWW) matrix are evaluated for drinking water purification applications. Filtrations of standard SWW dispersions at various total suspended solid (TSS) content are performed, including spiking tests with 30 nm surrogate latex particles and 28 nm ΦX174 bacteriophages. Filter papers of thicknesses 9 and 29 µm are used, and the filtrations are performed at two different operational pressures, i.e., 1 and 3 bar. The presented data using SWW matrix show, for the first time, that a filter paper made from 100% nanocellulose has the capacity to efficiently remove even the smallest viruses, i.e., up to 99.9980–99.9995% efficiency, at industrially relevant flow rates, i.e., 60–500 L m −2 h −1 , and low fouling, i.e., V max > 10 3 –10 4 L m −2 . The filter paper presented in this work shows great promise for the development of robust, affordable, and sustainable water purification systems.

High Virus Removal by Self‐Organized Nanostructured 2D Liquid‐Crystalline Smectic Membranes for Water Treatment

“…The comparison of Poly-1(SmA) and membranes obtained by block copolymers, [27] nanofibers, [12,13] and commercially available hollow fibers [47] are shown in Table S1 (Supporting Information). Poly-1(SmA) showed far superior removal with an LRV of more than 7 log 10 .…”

“…In contrast, filtration technologies such as membranes form a physical barrier to prevent pathogens from entering the treated effluent. [8][9][10][11][12][13] In the conventional method to prepare membranes, it is difficult to obtain regular sized pores and pinhole free surface. Advanced water filtration membranes have been proposed with materials such as liquid crystals, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] carbon nanotubes, [21][22][23][24][25][26] and block polymers.…”

Emerging Developments Regarding Nanocellulose-Based Membrane Filtration Material against Microbes

“…Gustafsson et al (2018) [ 95 ] evaluated membrane filter made from nanocellulose in a mille-feuille arrangement of varying thicknesses using a simulated wastewater matrix to explore its ability to remove viruses for drinking water purification applications. The filtrations of various samples of simulated wastewater with its total suspended solid content being 30 nm latex particles as surrogate waste material and 28 nm ΦX174 bacteriophages as the viral contamination.…”

“…Generally, the use of size-exclusion type filtration has several benefits, such as flexibility and ease of use since it provides virus removal predictability through its physical properties, allows for the filtration of viral markers, enabling easy validation of the filtration process, and does not use toxic or mutagenic chemicals for viral inactivation [15,93,94]. [95] evaluated membrane filter made from nanocellulose in a mille-feuille arrangement of varying thicknesses using a simulated wastewater matrix to explore its ability to remove viruses for drinking water purification applications. The filtrations of various samples of simulated wastewater with its total suspended solid content being 30 nm latex particles as surrogate waste material and 28 nm ΦX174 bacteriophages as the viral contamination.…”

Emerging development of nanocellulose as an antimicrobial material: an overview

“…8 There are about 140 known pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and protozoa. 9 Studies done by Kramer et al (2006) 10 and Otter et al (2013) 11 have shown that nosocomial pathogens, including Acinetobacter baumannii and Staphylococcus aureus can survive for a few weeks to months on an inanimate surface. Therefore, the acquisition of antibiotic resistance combined with passive disinfection would offer a more effective combative strategy against pathogen resiliency.…”