STUDY ON UV DISINFECTION AND THE EFFECT OF UPSTREAM COAGULATION-MF/UF FILTRATION USING VIRAL SURROGATES.

Abstract

Viruses are crucial challenge microorganisms to MF/UF and UV disinfection. This is due to the sizes of viruses which are smaller than/comparable to MF/UF membrane pores, and to the higher resistances of viruses (particularly Adenoviruses) to UV disinfection. This study focuses on the removal of viruses via hybrid coagulation-MF/UF filtration followed by UV disinfection. LP and MP UV disinfection was conducted on AD serotypes 5, 40 and 41 using three different host cells (HEK293, PLC/PRF/5, XP17BE). AD enumerated with different cell lines exhibited different LP UV resistance. With MP UV irradiation, this variability was minimized due to the different extents of repair by the host cells. MS2 used as a target microorganism for coagulation-MF/UF-UV process, and AD5 for UV disinfection, was compared with a series of dye surrogates. MS2 conjugated with fluorescent dyes and fluorescent microspheres were observed to be possible surrogates for viruses during MF/UF filtration and UV disinfection.