In order to investigate membrane fouling indetail,FMNP010
membranes used in filtration experiments were characterized
by using AFM and SEM. AFM and SEM analysis allowed the
comparison of the surfaces and pores of the clean and fouled
membranes. As mentioned in Section 3.2, the most important
factor for membrane fouling was transmembrane pressure.Therefore, AFM and SEM ana lysis were carried out for the membranes
with different transmembrane pressures. Membrane samples that
selected for the analyses are:(a)FMNP010 membrane before filtration, (b)FMNP010 membrane after filtration at 36 bar that
the highest membrane fouling(67%)occurred,(c)FMNP010
membrane after filtration at 24 bar that the intermediate membrane fouling(47%)occurred,(d)FMNP010 membrane after
filtration at 12 bar that the lowest membrane fouling(26%)
occurred.