In Fig. 3(b), the effect of temperature on membrane fouling is
presented. It can be seen that S/N ratio decreased while temperature increased from 25 ◦C to 45◦C. Hence the lowest membrane
fouling was occurred at lower temperature(25 ◦C). It is known
that the fluxes increase with increasing temperature. This is due
to the probable reasons that the reduction of solvent viscosity, the
increasing of solvent diffusion coefficient in the membranes and the
thermal expansion of the membrane materials [26,27]. However,
flux decline caused by fouling increased by increasing temperature. The increasing amount of pollutants that can easily pass
at higher temperatures resulted in plugging within the expanded
pores and membrane surface. Therefore higher membrane fouling
was occurred at 45 ◦C.