The present invention relates to a method for processing a membrane filtration apparatus having at least one fluid inlet and at least one fluid outlet, said method comprising a first step a) of supplying and flowing a first enzyme solution comprising at least one protease through said membrane filtration apparatus for a first predetermined time period, said first step a) being followed by a first measurement, performed at said at least one fluid inlet and/or said at least one fluid outlet of said membrane filtration apparatus, of at least one first parameter value making it possible to characterize the fluid flowing within said membrane filtration apparatus, said at least one first measured parameter value being compared to a value of the same parameter measured before step a).

A system can include a filter assembly with a filter and a substance in the filter assembly, and at least one optical computing device having an integrated computational element which receives electromagnetic radiation from the substance. A method can include receiving electromagnetic radiation from a substance in a filter assembly, the electromagnetic radiation from the substance being received by at least one optical computing device having an integrated computational element, and the receiving being performed while a filter is positioned in the filter assembly. A detector may receive electromagnetic radiation from the integrated computational element and produce an output correlated to a characteristic of the substance. A mitigation technique may be selected, based on the detector output.

A system can include a filter assembly with a filter and a substance in the filter assembly, and at least one optical computing device having an integrated computational element which receives electromagnetic radiation from the substance. A method can include receiving electromagnetic radiation from a substance in a filter assembly, the electromagnetic radiation from the substance being received by at least one optical computing device having an integrated computational element, and the receiving being performed while a filter is positioned in the filter assembly. A detector may receive electromagnetic radiation from the integrated computational element and produce an output correlated to a characteristic of the substance. A mitigation technique may be selected, based on the detector output.

A method of cleaning a membrane surface immersed in a liquid medium with a fluid flow, including the steps of providing a randomly generated intermittent or pulsed fluid flow along the membrane surface to dislodge fouling materials therefrom. A membrane module is also disclosed comprising a plurality of porous membranes (6) or a set of membrane modules (5) and a device (11) for providing a generally randomly generated, pulsed fluid flow such that, in use, said fluid flow moves past the surfaces of said membranes (6) to dislodge fouling materials therefrom.

A device for measuring the pollution index of a filtration membrane includes: a raw water supply part; a first filtration membrane; a raw water supply line; a first flow rate measuring part; a first path line; a second path line; a second filtration membrane having a filtration characteristic different from the first filtration membrane; a first path selection valve installed in the first path line in parallel with respect to the second filtration membrane so that a first measuring path from the raw water supply part to the first flow rate measuring part passes through the first filtration membrane and a second measuring path from the raw water supply part to the first flow rate measuring part successively passes through the first and second filtration membranes; and a pollution index measuring part measuring the pollution indexes of the first and second filtration membranes.

A method of cleaning a membrane surface immersed in a liquid medium with a fluid flow, including the steps of providing a randomly generated intermittent or pulsed fluid flow along the membrane surface to dislodge fouling materials therefrom. A membrane module is also disclosed comprising a plurality of porous membranes (6) or a set of membrane modules (5) and a device (11) for providing a generally randomly generated, pulsed fluid flow such that, in use, said fluid flow moves past the surfaces of said membranes (6) to dislodge fouling materials therefrom.

This invention is connected to the influent or effluent stream of an SDI filter holder assembly that might otherwise be applied in the manual measurement of the flow rates and times as required to calculate a silt density index. The invention is based on its ability to provide data collection external to the filter holder assembly in digitally measuring the flow rate and water temperature proceeding to or from the filter assembly and in automatically incorporating those readings into a microprocessor for calculating the silt density index and in normalizing the index value for the effects of variation in initial filter permeability and water temperature, and in minimizing the effect of increasing cake solids on the SDI value as related to the decreasing flow of water-borne solids to the filter surface. Furthermore, the portability of the invention is enhanced via its ability to directly operate a pressure boosting pump to assist in achieving the typical SDI test pressure of 30 psi, and this portability is further enhanced with its ability to be powered by a battery.

The present invention relates to a damage inspection method for a reverse osmosis membrane, in which at least one of: presence or absence of physical damage; and a degree of physical damage in a reverse osmosis membrane is inspected based on presence or absence of a stained area on at least a permeate side of a stained membrane obtained by supplying a water-to-be-treated including a staining agent to the reverse osmosis membrane to stain the reverse osmosis membrane.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for evaluating the clogging of a filtration membrane with a protein-containing solution, including the steps of: a) passing a protein-containing solution through a filtration membrane, b) after the step a), obtaining a filtration membrane cross-section from the filtration membrane, c) treating the protein-containing solution before the step a), the filtration membrane before the step b), or the filtration membrane cross-section after the step b) with at least one stain specific to a protein aggregate, and d) confirming the presence of the protein aggregate in the filtration membrane cross-section.

A membrane fouling monitoring and analysis system may be used on a food and beverage membrane operated over a plurality of production periods separated by daily clean-in-place cleanings. In some examples, the system receives data indicative of a flow of one or both of a permeate stream and a retentate stream of the membrane during the plurality of production periods and determines a trend of at least one parameter associated with the data to provide a determined trend. The system may compare the determined trend to a baseline fouling trend and determine if and/or when to perform a deep cleaning on the membrane based on comparison. The system may subsequently execute the deep cleaning on the membrane at the scheduled time.