Influence of commercial detergents on UF membrane ageing: Case of drinking water

During cleaning steps, ultrafiltration membranes are mechanically and chemically stressed. This may result in membrane degradations and failures. In this paper, polysulfone membranes were used to evaluate membrane deteriorations by commercial detergents in static conditions. Ageing of the membrane was simulated by immersing samples in solutions containing commercial detergents with various concentrations, temperatures and times defined by experimental designs. Indeed, an innovative approach in the chemical membranes ageing researches, based on methodological tools, was used in order to achieve significant ageing experiments without using an accelerated ageing protocol. The macroscopic changes were monitored by permeability measurements and mechanical strength tests coupled with a microscopic characterization by ATR-FTIR and HRSEM. The present work details results obtained for three commercial detergents: an alkaline, an acidic and an enzymatic detergent. It was found that the detergents used in the industrial advised conditions (concentration, temperature and time of contact) were not detrimental for membrane properties (permeability and elongation at break) and so for the quality of the produced water. Over the industrial cumulated time of contact, different ageing effects can be observed and compared with the ones induced by NaOCl.