Natural Viruses for Monitoring the Integrity of Reverse Osmosis Membranes With > 7 LRV Without Addition of Virus Surrogates

RO membranes are technically capable of achieving complete virus removal, but leaking seals and membrane damage can cause small leaks, so the integrity should be monitored. Current methods can determine a LRV of 3, so the full removal capacity for viruses cannot be verified in full scale installations. Challenge tests with virus surrogates are not feasible in full scale due to costs and membrane fouling. Our abstract describes a new method that uses naturally present viruses for membrane integrity verification, and enables monitoring membrane integrity for viruses with a LRV of 7 or more, without adding surrogates. This finding can be implemented in full scale installations, and is a major improvement for monitoring virus integrity.