Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Laboratory of Environmental Engineering & Planning, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54 124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Feb;29(8):11304-11319. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-16528-0. Epub 2021 Sep 17.
Accounting for SARS-CoV-2 adsorption on solids suspended in wastewater is a necessary step towards the reliable estimation of virus shedding rate in a sewerage system, based on measurements performed at a terminal collection station, i.e., at the entrance of a wastewater treatment plant. This concept is extended herein to include several measurement stations across a city to enable the estimation of spatial distribution of virus shedding rate. This study presents a pioneer general model describing the most relevant physicochemical phenomena with a special effort to reduce the complicated algebra. This is performed both in the topology regime, introducing a discrete-continuous approach, and in the domain of independent variables, introducing a monodisperse moment method to reduce the dimensionality of the resulting population balance equations. The resulting simplified model consists of a large system of ordinary differential equations. A sensitivity analysis is performed with respect to some key parameters for a single pipe topology. Specific numerical techniques are employed for the integration of the model. Finally, a parametric case study for an indicative-yet realistic-sewerage piping system is performed to show how the model is applied to SARS-CoV-2 adsorption on wastewater solids in the presence of other competing species. This is the first model of this kind appearing in scientific literature and a first step towards setting up an inverse problem to assess the spatial distribution of virus shedding rate based on its concentration in wastewater.
考虑到 SARS-CoV-2 在废水中悬浮固体上的吸附，是根据在终端收集站（即污水处理厂入口处）进行的测量，可靠估计污水系统中病毒排放率的必要步骤。这一概念在这里被扩展到包括城市中的几个测量站，以能够估计病毒排放率的空间分布。本研究提出了一个先驱性的通用模型，描述了最相关的物理化学现象，特别努力简化复杂的代数。这是通过拓扑结构引入离散-连续方法和独立变量领域引入单分散矩方法来实现的，以降低所得群体平衡方程的维数。简化后的模型由一个大型常微分方程组组成。针对单一管道拓扑结构，对一些关键参数进行了敏感性分析。模型的积分采用了特定的数值技术。最后，对一个具有代表性但现实的污水管道系统进行了参数案例研究，以展示如何在存在其他竞争物种的情况下，将该模型应用于 SARS-CoV-2 在废水中悬浮固体上的吸附。这是科学文献中出现的第一个此类模型，也是建立基于废水中病毒浓度评估病毒排放率空间分布的反问题的第一步。
