Effect of Hydrochemical Factors on the Retention and Transport of Ribavirin in Saturated Sand and Limestone Porous Media.

The antiviral drug ribavirin is widely used and continuously released into the environment through various pathways, which will cause serious water pollution and virus resistance. However, only few works have examined ribavirin retention and transport groundwater environment. This study investigates the transport behavior of ribavirin in saturated quartz sand and limestone porous media, considering ionic strength (IS), ionic type and humic acid (HA), through column experiments and mathematical modeling. The findings reveal that, ribavirin exhibits strong mobility within saturated quartz sand media is less affected by different hydrochemical factors, posing a high risk of migration. In limestone porous media, the migration of ribavirin decreased. In comparison to Na⁺, the presence of Ca²⁺ causes the effluent recovery rate of ribavirin decreases. And as the IS of Ca²⁺ background solution increases, the effluent recovery rate of ribavirin also decreases. The presence of HA causes more ribavirin to flow out of the column, and its effect becomes more pronounced with increasing concentration. Furthermore, simulated precipitation scenarios, the ribavirin adsorbed on the of media surface is released again and transport with the water flow. These findings enhance our understanding about the environmental fate of ribavirin and facilitating ecological restoration efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]