New technique to evaluate decontamination methods for filtering facepiece respirators

•Both ultraviolet germicidal irradiation and moist heat decontamination methods did not degrade the respirator performance.•The ultraviolet germicidal irradiation and moist heat methods inactivated MS2 virus (>5-log reduction) consistently.•UV decon efficacy order: aerosol-based >vapor-based >solution-based deposition.•Generally, decontamination efficacy order: hydrophilic filtering facepiece respirator slightly >hydrophobic filtering facepiece respirator.•All 3 varying virus loading types could be repeatably and reproducibly achieved.