Solvent flux and solute rejection of both flat sheet PM S600 and
Lab-1 membranes were measured in a 4-cell cross-flow filtration
system, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The flat sheet membranes were in-
itially conditioned at 5 bar for 5–7 h using pure EA to remove the
preservatives inside the membranes. The membranes were then
tested in pure EA, followed by 1 g L1 SoA in EA solution at various
feed pressures (from 5 to 30 bar in increasing order 5 - 10 - 20
- 30, and then in decreasing order back to 5 bar) with a retentate
flowrate of 80 L h1 (obtained with a Hydra-Cell D3 pump). The
volume of the feed solution was around 3.5 L. This pressurisation
and depressurisation test was repeated three times for each
membrane. Four discs of the same membranes were tested si-
multaneously in the cross-flow equipment. In total, two test runs
were performed for each type of membrane. The permeate flux
was measured every hour until the flux had remained stable for
3 h under each test condition. The average of the last three