Biomass derived silica containing products for removal of microorganisms from water

The research is potentially attractive for converting silica rich biomass into useful materials. Silica containing specimens prepared by the thermal method and deposition from rice production waste (straw and husk) were evaluated for their ability to remove different strains of microorganisms from the water. The strains of microorganisms with different cell shape and size were chosen for investigation: Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and freshwater heterotrophic bacterial association. The results obtained have been discussed as compared to the physical and chemical parameters of the sorbents: their composition, specific surface value, pore size, zeta potential value and surface hydrophobicity. Our study showed that removal efficiency of SiO2 specimens and alumosilicate sample prepared from rice husk to different strains of microorganisms was higher that of other specimens including commercial sorbent. The use of various processing schemes for rice production waste let to obtain efficient selective sorbents.