Development of Predictive Tools for Membrane Ageing

This study increases our current understanding on the degradation/ageing mechanisms occurring on porous membranes used in the water and wastewater industries. Accelerated membrane degradation was obtained through both static and consecutive ageing protocols on the pilot-scale, and a range of carefully selected characterisation and analytical techniques was used to characterise the nascent changes faced by the membrane material. The report covers four interrelated sections: • critical assessment of characterisation techniques, • static accelerated ageing • consecutive accelerated ageing • consecutive ageing of industrially-aged membranes. This final report summarises the aims, objectives, outcomes and limitations of the individual work packages, along with some recommendations for future work.