Implementation of a Sensitive Method to Assess High Virus Retention Performance of Low-Pressure Reverse Osmosis Process

This study evaluates two methods for the concentration of adenoviruses, enteroviruses and MS2 bacteriophages at different viral concentrations in large (<  200 L) and very large (>  200 L) volumes. The first method is composed of two ultrafiltration membranes with low-molecular weight cut-offs while the second method primarily relies on adsorption and elution phases using electropositive-charged filters. The recovery rates were assessed for both methods. For the ultrafiltrat ion-based protocol, recovery rates were similar for each virus studied: 80% on average at high virus concentrations (106–107 viruses L−1) and 50% at low virus concentrations (103–104 viruses L−1). For the electropositive-charged filter-based method, the average recoveries obtained were about 36% for ADV 41, 57% for CV-B5 and 1.6% for MS2. The ultrafiltration-based method was then used to evaluate the performance of a low-pressure reverse osmosis lab-scale pilot plant. The retentions by reverse osmosis were similar for all studied viruses and the validated recovery rates applied to the system confirmed the reliability of the concentration method. This method was effective in concentrating all three viruses over a wide range of viral concentrations. Moreover, the second concentration method using electropositive-charged filters was studied, allowing the filtration of larger volumes of permeate from a semi-industrial low-pressure reverse osmosis pilot plant. This reference method was used b...
Source: Food and Environmental Virology - Category: Virology Source Type: research