Midori Yasui

Microbial risk has to be controlled to ensure the safety of drinking water systems. Among pathogens, human enteric viruses (e.g., Norovirus, Rotavirus) need only a few virions to infect humans and have high persistence against water treatments. Viruses are one of the most challenging pathogens to be removed.
Viral safety of drinking water should be guaranteed with multiple treatments, not only disinfection but also physical removal process (e.g., membrane filtration). Disinfection is an effective way to inactivate pathogens. On the other hand, physical removal is challenging because of nano-scale virus size. My study aims to achieve a certain level of virus removal by filtration systems considering surface interactions between viruses and systems.