Kinetics of Enteroviral Inactivation by Ozone

An analysis of enteroviral inactivation by ozone was performed using kinetic expressions developed from mass balance information obtained from a continuous flow reactor. The rate of viral inactivation was observed to be directly proportional to the residual ozone concentration and the density of viruses raised to the power of 0.69. The effect of temperature on the rate of viral inactivation was evaluated using Arrhenius and Eyring’s equations. The activation energy and entropy of the overall inactivation reaction were observed to be 3.6 kcal and -13.66 cal/uaoK, respectively. The low value of activation energy implies that the viral inactivation reaction is controlled by mass transfer of ozone through the viral protein coat. The negative value of entropy indicates that a more orderly arrangement of viral molecules occurred during the ozone inactivation process.