title: Virus removal and integrity in aged RO membranes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; INRA, UR0050 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Laure
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Pype
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Bogdan C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Donose
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Llucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martí
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patureau
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR0050 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, F-11100 Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wery
authors.affiliation: Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona 08010, Spain; Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Girona 17003, Spain. Electronic address: wgernjak@icra.cat.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gernjak
mesh_terms: D002713:Chlorine; D005374:Filtration / Q000379:methods; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D006997:Hypochlorous Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D017909:Levivirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D009995:Osmosis; D010539:Permeability; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D002713:Chlorine; D006997:Hypochlorous Acid
keywords: Ageing; Membrane integrity; Reverse osmosis; Virus surrogate