Retention of Virus Versus Surrogate, by Ultrafiltration in Seawater: Case Study of Norovirus Versus Tulane

In the field of chemical engineering and water treatment, the study of viruses, included surrogates, is well documented. Often, surrogates are used to study viruses and their behavior because they can be produced in larger quantities in safer conditions and are easier to handle. In fact, surrogates allow studying microorganisms which are non-infectious to humans but share some properties similar to pathogenic viruses: structure, composition, morphology, and size. Human noroviruses, recognized as the leading cause of epidemics and sporadic cases of gastroenteritis across all age groups, may be mimicked by the Tulane virus. The objectives of this work were to study (i) the ultrafiltration of Tulane virus and norovirus to validate that Tulane virus can be used as a surrogate for norovirus in water treatment process and (ii) the retention of norovirus and the surrogate as a function of water quality to better understand the use of the latter pathogenic viruses. Ultrafiltration tests showed significant logarithmic reduction values (LRV) in viral RNA: around 2.5 for global LRV (i.e., based on the initial and permeate average concentrations) and between 2 and 6 for average LRV (i.e., retention rate considering the increase of viral concentration in the retentate), both for norovirus and the surrogate Tulane virus. Higher reduction rates (from 2 to 6 log genome copies) are obtained for higher initial concentrations (from 101 to 107 genome copies per mL) due to virus aggregation in membrane lumen. Tulane virus appears to be a good surrogate for norovirus retention by membrane processes.

Virus removal and integrity in aged RO membranes

Membrane ageing reduces the quality of the filtered water. Therefore, in order to warrant public health, monitoring membrane performances are of utmost importance. Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are generally used to remove viruses and salt. However, there is no detailed study demonstrating the impact of aged membrane on the rejection of viruses and of membrane integrity indicators. In this paper, the impact of hypochlorite induced RO ageing on the rejection of a virus surrogate (MS2 phage) and four membrane integrity indicators (salt, dissolved organic matter, rhodamine WT and sulphate) was evaluated. Hypochlorite exposure was either active (under filtration) or passive (soaking), and the changes of the membrane surface chemistry were characterised using several autopsy techniques. Under this accelerated ageing condition, the introduction of chlorine in the membrane chemistry and the breakage of amide bonds caused an increase of the water permeability and a decrease of the virus surrogate's and indicators' rejection. Ageing resulted in a more negatively charged membrane and also in a higher hydrophobicity, which lead to the adsorption of MS2 phage. Despite severe physical membrane damage leading to a reduction of salt rejection to 1.2 log (94%), the minimum rejection of MS2 phage stayed on or above 4 log.