Researchers from BGU and the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed novel
ultrafiltration membranes that significantly improve the virus-removal process
from treated municipal wastewater used for drinking in water-scarce cities.
Current membrane filtration methods require intensive energy to
adequately remove pathogenic viruses without using chemicals like chlorine,
which can contaminate the water with disinfection byproducts. Researchers at
UIUC and BGU collaborated on the new approach for virus pathogen removal, which
was published in the current issue of Water Research - Improvement of virus removal using ultrafiltration membranes modified with grafted zwitterionic polymer hydrogels.
"This is an urgent matter of public safety," the researchers
say. "Insufficient removal of human Adenovirus in municipal wastewater,
for example, has been detected as a contaminant in U.S. drinking water sources,
including the Great Lakes and worldwide."
The norovirus, which can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, is the
most common cause of viral gastroenteritis in humans, and is estimated to be
the second leading cause of gastroenteritis-associated mortality. Human
adenoviruses can cause a wide range of illnesses that include the common cold,
sore throat (pharyngitis), bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, pink eye
(conjunctivitis), fever, bladder inflammation or infection (cystitis),
inflammation of the stomach and intestines (gastroenteritis), and neurological
In the study, Prof. Moshe Herzberg (pictured above) of the Department of Desalinationand Water Treatment (DWT) in the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research at BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and
his group grafted a special hydrogel coating onto a commercial ultrafiltration
membrane. The "zwitterionic polymer hydrogel" repels the viruses from
approaching and passing through the membrane. It contains both positive and
negative charges and improves efficiency by weakening virus accumulation on the
modified filter surface. The result was a significantly higher rate of removal
of waterborne viruses, including human norovirus and adenovirus.
"Utilizing a simple graft-polymerization of commercialized membranes
to make virus removal more comprehensive is a promising development for
controlling filtration of pathogens in potable water reuse," says Prof. Thanh H. Nguyen, Department of Chemical Engineering, UIUC.
Prof. Herzberg and his student, Maria Piatkovsky, worked on this
groundbreaking research with Prof. Nguyen and her student, Ruiqing Lu,
Department of Chemical Engineering, UIUC as well as Professor Dr. MathiasUlbricht, chair of Technical Chemistry II, University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
The project was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the German-Israeli Water Technology
Cooperation Program, which is funded by the Ministry of Science &
Technology of Israel and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of