Supercritical fluid treatment of organic membranes

Membrane processes are used for drinking water production and medical applications to remove and/or produce viruses using organic membranes. It appears that backwashing is not sufficient to remove all the viruses stopped by the membrane. The use of “one-shot” membranes or chlorinated solution filtration can be considered with an additional cost and accelerated aging of the membranes respectively. The inactivation of bacteria, spores and/or viruses has been demonstrated by the use of supercritical fluid. The use of a supercritical CO2 treatment of organic membranes is studied with the aim to investigate the impact of this treatment on the membrane performances and on virus destruction. It is demonstrated that whatever the operating conditions, the membrane materials and the application modes, the permeability and the retention of the membrane are not impacted. TEM observation of the viruses after treatment shows no virus integrity. [Display omitted] •Hydraulic and retention membrane performances are maintained after a supercritical CO2 treatment.•No influence of the SCCO2 operating conditions was observed on membrane performances.•SCCO2 treatment was used on UF membranes to inactivate virus retained.•Mechanism of virus inactivation included SCCO2 was discussed.