| Disinfection of drinking water with free chlorine has improved and protected human health around the world for over one hundred years. Unfortunately, there are new health-based drivers pushing utilities away from the use of free chlorine as a disinfectant. Several alternative disinfectants are being explored or implemented by water treatment utilities. However, some of the popular alternatives, such as UV light and monochloramine, perform poorly against viruses. The development of better disinfection alternatives would benefit from improved fundamental understanding of how current technologies elicit virus inactivation. The main objective of this thesis, therefore, was to further elucidate the mechanisms of adenovirus inactivation with free chlorine, monochloramine, and UV light. In pursuing this objective, the following milestones were achieved: (1) characterization of adenovirus inactivation kinetics with free chlorine and ozone over a range of water qualities relevant to water treatment practice; (2) development and optimization of molecular tools for measuring the effects of disinfectants on the integrity of the adenovirus structure and/or the associated functionality in the context of adenovirus replication; and (3) comparison of adenovirus replication ability to the integrity of adenovirus structures or life cycle steps at increasing levels of disinfectant exposure. Through this comprehensive analysis, a more fundamental understanding of how disinfectants inactivate adenovirus was obtained. The results have implications for disinfection technology development, disinfection validation, and pathogen detection. |
