ABSTRACT
The invention of membrane technology, including microltration (MF), ultraltration (UF), nanoltration (NF), and reverse osmosis (RO), has caused a progressive development in various elds, such as water purication, gas separation, biotechnology, and fuel cell technology. However, the most important limiting factor or disadvantage of membrane technology is fouling. In the membrane technology eld, fouling of the membrane refers to the accumulation of undesired materials on the membrane surface. Fouling materials are usually composed of living organisms or their derivatives (called biofouling) (Lee et al. 2007b; Kang et al. 2004; Subramani and Hoek 2010) and nonliving substances (called inorganic fouling). Fouling of membranes has been a key issue since the technology’s invention and application.
