Fouling characteristics of humic substances on tight polysulfone-based ultrafiltration membrane

Fouling characteristics of humic substances on tight ultrafiltration (UF) membrane have been investigated. The tight UF membrane was prepared by blending polysulfone (PSf) in N.N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) with 25%wt of Polyethylene glycol (PEG400) and 4%wt of acetone. Fouling characteristic of the modified PSf membrane was observed during peat water filtration in different trans-membrane pressure (TMP). It was found that the acetone modified membrane provided 13% increase in TMP during five hours of peat water filtration, where a stable flux was reached within 150 minutes. Meanwhile, the increase of TMP from 10 psig to 30 psig resulted in a fouling resistance enhancement of 60%. Furthermore, based on the fouling analysis, fouling mechanism at the first phase of filtration was attributed to intermediate blocking while the second phase was cake formation.