LAUSR

Abstract Within the Adenoviridae family, human adenovirus 40 (HAdV40) is the most UV resistant serotype. This study explores photocatalytic inactivation of the pathogenic HAdV40 by UV light with TiO 2 catalyst in the presence of dissolved organic matter. Scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by dissolved organics is significant: 9.6 mg(DOC)/L decreases [OH ] by the factor of ∼17.4 with respect to that in deionized water. Regardless of the pre-filter choice ( d pore  = 0.03 μm, 0.45 μm, or 0.8 μm), the removal of the total HAdV40 by photocatalytic UV depends linearly on UV 254 fluence, Φ 254 , indicating that water quality impacts the DNA damage via fluence attenuation only. In contrast, the removal of infectious HAdV40 depends on the nature of dissolved constituents in the sample; at low Φ 254 , for the same value of fluence photocatalytic UV disinfection is more effective when using the smallest pore size (0.03 μm) pre-filter. The differences in concentration, molecular weight, and type of organic molecules that pass through different prefilters should translate into variations in the extent of quenching. Apparently, filtration through a 0.03 μm membrane produces sufficiently pure permeate for the adenovirus to become an ROS’s target competitive with remaining organic scavengers. Combining a photocatalyst-coated microfiltration membrane ( d pore  = 0.8 μm) with UV light into a photocatalytic membrane reactor removes ∼3.0 log of infectious HAdV40 in the high throughput continuous flow process with the initial specific permeate flux of 3322 ± 266 (L m −2  h −1  bar −1 ). The results point to the potential feasibility of photocatalytic disinfection as a tertiary treatment applied to a relatively high quality effluent typical for membrane filtration plants.