Influence of Ionic Surfactants on Microfiltration of Enveloped and Nonenveloped Viruses

Viruses in wastewater effluent pose significant public health risks, and achieving high log reduction values is critical for wastewater reuse applications. The influence of ionic surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and benzyldimethyldodecylammonium chloride (BAC) in wastewater on virus removal and infectivity after microfiltration (200 nm cutoff) was investigated. Microfiltration log rejection values (LRVs) for infective human adenovirus (ADV, nonenveloped, 90-nm diameter) and mouse hepatitis virus (MHV, enveloped, 80- to 120-nm diameter) increased when surfactants were present in wastewater from 4.3 to 6.8-7.1 and from 4.8 to 4.9-5.1 LRV for ADV and MHV, respectively. Lower LRVs were found when using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) than by TCID₅₀/mL infectives for both viruses, specifically from 1.4 to 3.4 for ADV and MHV, respectively. SEM-EDS confirmed aggregated virus and surfactant sorption on the membrane. This work advanced understanding of microfiltration virus log reduction influenced by surfactants and is applicable to wastewater reuse.