Statistical analysis of data from accelerated ageing tests of PES UF membranes

In this research, membrane life-time was evaluated by means of accelerated ageing experiments. A pressure pulse unit was used to perform the ageing experiments in an accelerated way. An experimental design has been set up and four ageing factors were varied at two levels. The four ageing factors studied were: fouling status of the membrane, cleaning agent concentration, magnitude of the back pulse and number of applied back pulses. The integrity of the membrane modules was evaluated by means of permeability testing, pressure decay tests and bubble tests. Also tensile tests were performed to investigate the mechanical properties of the membrane modules. The collected data was used for an analysis of variance to determine which ageing factors and which combination of ageing factors influence membrane life time. The analysis showed that the fouling status in combination with the number of applied pressure pulses were significant ageing factors. Additional tensile tests confirmed these results.