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 impa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Water research (Oxford) Vol. 90; pp. 167 - 175
Main Authors:	Pype, Marie-Laure, Donose, Bogdan C., Martí, Llucia, Patureau, Dominique, Wery, Nathalie, Gernjak, Wolfgang
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2016 IWA Publishing/Elsevier
Subjects:	Ageing Aging Chlorine Environmental Sciences Filtration - methods Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions Hypochlorous Acid - chemistry Indicators Integrity Levivirus - isolation & purification Life Sciences Membrane integrity Membranes Membranes, Artificial Osmosis Permeability Phage Rejection Reverse osmosis Virus surrogate Viruses Water Purification - methods Virus surrogate Reverse osmosis Ageing Membrane integrity reverse osmosis ageing membrane integrity virus surrogate
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Summary:	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. [Display omitted] •Membrane surface chemistry changed after a contact time of 9000 ppm h NaOCl at pH 7.•The introduction of chlorine caused an increase of the water permeability.•Chlorine attack caused a decrease of MS2 phage and other compounds rejection.•Aged membrane facilitated the adsorption of MS2 phage.•The rejection of MS2 phage was still of 4 log despite the strong membrane damage.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0043-1354 1879-2448
DOI:	10.1016/j.watres.2015.12.023