Inactivation and genome damage of rotavirus and a human norovirus surrogate by monochloramine treatment and sequential application with UV

•Tulane viruses (TV) were more susceptible to monochloramine than rotaviruses (RV).•UV254-NH2Cl was more efficient than NH2Cl alone for the inactivation of RV and TV.•The synergistic effect was generated during the inactivation of RV by UV254-NH2Cl.•Genome damage was the primary mechanism of synergistic effect in UV254-NH2Cl for RV.•High susceptibility of TV to NH2Cl and UV resulted in no synergy during UV254-NH2Cl. The inactivation efficacy by monochloramine for disinfecting gastroenteritis-causing rotaviruses (RV) and Tulane viruses (TV), a surrogate for noroviruses, were evaluated in this study. In addition, the strategies for improving the disinfection efficiency of monochloramine by raising the temperature and sequentially implementing UV irradiation were investigated. The results showed that monochloramine was more effective in the inactivation of TV than RV. Additionally, the inactivation rate constants of RV and TV by monochloramine at 35 °C were improved approximately by 46% and 100%, respectively, compared to those at 25 °C. Moreover, applying UV irradiation before monochloramine enhanced the inactivation efficacy of RV and TV by 63% and 72% compared to monochloramine alone (UV: 6 mJ/cm2, NH2Cl: 60 ppm × min). Furthermore, the synergistic effect was observed during the RV inactivation by the sequential process. Especially, higher than 0.5 log10 reductions of RV VP1 genome contributed to the synergistic effect in sequential treatment, while less than 0.1 log10 reductions of RV VP1 genome were observed during UV alone (13 mJ/cm2) or monochloramine alone (94 ppm × min). The genome damage might be the primary mechanism of generating synergy in sequential treatment for the inactivation of RV. By comparison, no synergistic effect was discovered for the inactivation of TV due to high susceptibility to monochloramine and UV. The findings on the inactivation efficacy and mechanism for improvement will contribute to a wide application of monochloramine for virus inactivation in water treatment and distribution systems. [Display omitted]