Fouling Adhesion Research Articles

Mitigating membrane fouling by coupling coagulation and the electrokinetic effect in a novel electrocoagulation membrane cathode reactor

Membrane reactors with efficient antifouling and low maintenance are desirable for distributed membrane water treatment. In this study, a novel membrane separation reactor with an Al anode and a conductive membrane as the cathode was built to develop a chemical-free method for mitigating membrane fouling via electrocoagulation coupled with the electrokinetic effect. The electrostatic repulsion between humic acid (HA) and the membrane cathode reduced the adhesion of HA foulants on the membrane, thereby contributing to antifouling in the initial stage. Electrocoagulation and polarization induced by the electric field enlarged the HA-Al flocs, which prevented membrane pore blocking and facilitated the formation of a porous cake layer, thereby leading to a high water flux of the electrocoagulation membrane cathode reactor (ECMCR) in the stable stage. The bubbles from hydrogen evolution on the membrane cathode scoured the HA foulants and washed out the dense cake layer, thereby playing an important role in membrane fouling mitigation. Compared with membrane filtration, the membrane cathode reactor, membrane anode reactor, and HA removal of the ECMCR increased by 9.6, 8.3, and 2.8 times, respectively, whereas the transmembrane pressure decreased by 84.6%, 21.5%, and 63.0%, respectively. The synergy of electrocoagulation and the electrokinetic effect provides the ECMCR with a feasible method of antifouling and improved effluent quality with low maintenance.

Effect of modified microbial flocculant on membrane fouling alleviation in a hybrid aerobic granular sludge membrane system for wastewater reuse

Pre-coagulation is an excellent method for alleviating membrane fouling in aerobic granular sludge (AGS) membrane systems (AGSMSs) for wastewater reuse. However, little attention has been paid to modified microbial flocculants (MMFs) for membrane fouling mitigation. Herein, an MMF was prepared, and the effect of its dosage (5–30 mg/L) on membrane fouling mitigation was investigated. MMF pre-coagulation could effectively alleviate membrane fouling by utilizing electrical neutralization and adsorption bridging. When the MMF dosage was 10 mg/L, the membrane flux was increased by 79.4% and the total fouling resistance was reduced by 90.3%. The MMF dosage of 10 mg/L greatly inhibited the adhesion and accumulation of foulants, thereby forming a loose and porous cake layer on the membrane surface. Moreover, the extended Derjaguin–Landau–Verwey–Overbeek theory further clarified that the greatest energy barriers existed throughout the filtration process with an MMF dosage of 10 mg/L. Correlation analysis showed that the occurrence of membrane fouling was mainly related to total phosphorus, chemical oxygen demand, and polysaccharides in the raw wastewater. This study reveals the effects of different MMF dosages on membrane fouling and provides a novel approach for MMF pre-coagulation to mitigate membrane fouling.

Recent advances in nature-inspired antifouling membranes for water purification

• Nature breaks new ground in the design of antifouling membranes. • The review summarizes the recent progress of nature-inspired antifouling membranes. • Fundamentals, strategies and applications of antifouling membranes are reviewed. • Challenges and perspectives for nature-inspired antifouling membranes are provided. Membrane separation technologies have been widely used for water purification. However, membrane fouling, which arises from unwanted deposition and adhesion of foulants, significantly hinders the applications of membrane technology. In recent years, inspirations that come through materials, processes and designs of nature open a new avenue for the development of antifouling membranes. The review aims to summarize the recent progress in nature-inspired antifouling membranes. The fundamentals of membrane fouling are first discussed based on the classical theories and recent advances in available literature. Subsequently, antifouling surfaces inspired from nature, involving superwetting surfaces, antimicrobial approaches and bio-synthesis strategies, are systematically summarized and antifouling membrane fabrications based on these strategies are critically reviewed. The challenges and perspectives are also discussed to facilitate the future research and development of nature-inspired antifouling membranes. This review provides comprehensive understanding and practical guidance on the construction of nature-inspired antifouling membranes for water purification.

Suspended Kirigami Surfaces for Multifoulant Adhesion Reduction

High foulant adhesion remains a critical issue in a wide range of industries, such as ice accretion on aircraft, biofoulants on ships, wax build-up within pipelines, and scale formation in water remediation. Previous anti-fouling surfaces have only shown promise for reducing the adhesion of a single foulant system; a multi-foulant anti-fouling technology remains elusive. Here, we introduce a mechanical metamaterial-based approach to develop anti-fouling surfaces applicable to a wide range of fouling substances. The suspended kirigami inverted nil-adhesion surfaces, or SKINS, show significantly reduced adhesion of ice, different waxes, dried mud, pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, and a marine hard foulant simulant. SKINS mimic the wrinkling of hard films adhered to soft substrates. Foulant adhesion can be minimized by this wrinkling, which may be controlled by tuning the kirigami motif, sheet material, and foulant dimensions. SKINS reduce adhesion mechanically and were found to be independent of surface energy, enabling their fabrication from commonplace hydrophilic polymers like cellulose acetate. Optimized SKINS exhibited extremely low foulant adhesion, for example, ice adhesion strengths less than 5 kPa (a >250-fold reduction from aluminum substates), and were found to maintain their performance on curved surfaces like transmission cables. The low foulant adhesion persisted over 30 repeated foulant deposition and removal cycles, demonstrating the anti-fouling durability of SKINS. Overall, SKINS offers a previously unexplored route to achieving low foulant adhesion that is highly tunable in both geometry and material selection, is applicable to many different fouling substances, and maintains extremely low foulant adhesion even on complex substrates over large fouled interfaces.

Antimicrobial and Anticorrosion Activity of a Novel Composite Biocide against Mixed Bacterial Strains in Taiwanese Marine Environments.

Taiwan is an island with a humid subtropical climate. The relatively warm seawater results in biofouling of the surfaces of marine facilities. Biocide application is a common practice for combating and eliminating adhesive fouling. However, a single type of biocide may have limited antimicrobial effects due to the relatively high microbial diversity in marine environments. Therefore, applying a mixture of various biocides may be necessary. In this study, the antimicrobial and anticorrosion properties of a newly designed composite biocide, namely a combination of thymol and benzyldimethyldodecylammonium chloride, were investigated by applying the biocide to 304 stainless steel substrates immersed in inocula containing bacterial strains from Tamsui and Zuoying harbors. The ability of 3TB and 5TB treatments to prevent sessile cells and biofilm formation on the 304 stainless steel coupon surface was determined through scanning electron microscopy investigation. In addition, confocal laser scanning microscopy indicated that the 5TB treatment achieved a greater bactericidal effect in both the Tamsui and Zuoying inocula. Moreover, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that the diameter of the Nyquist semicircle was almost completely unaffected by Tamsui or Zuoying under the 5TB treatment. Through these assessments of antimicrobial activity and corrosion resistance, 5TB treatment was demonstrated to have superior bactericidal activity against mixed strains in both southern and northern Taiwanese marine environments.

Influence of polymer functionalization on adhesion, friction and mold fouling

At the IMKF, eight different elastomer compounds with different polymer compositions were examined for their demolding characteristics and mold fouling. Ten demolding cycles were carried out for each compound and the fouling of the mold was photo-technical recorded after ten demolding cycles. The used polymer composition does not seem to have any significant influence. However, the components of the compound have a significant influence on the friction characteristics while removing of the vulcanizate from the mold. Crosslinking that begins very early has an initiating influence on mold fouling. The measurable fluctuations in the maximum demolding force that occur could correlate with the internal friction of the polymer with the filler.

Eco-friendly polyurethane acrylate (PUA)/natural filler-based composite as an antifouling product for marine coating.

In the current study, the polyurethane acrylate (PUA) polymer was synthesized by the addition reaction between an isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate and cured by polyol. Different properties of the synthesized PUA were determined through diverse analysis methods. The polyurethane acrylate (PUA)/natural filler-based composite (rhizome water extract of Costus speciosus) was prepared as an antifouling agent. The results revealed that the lowest weight loss percentages were detected at 2 wt% PUA/natural filler composite loadings with Escherichia coli (ATCC 23,282) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 10,145). The decreased weight loss percentage may be attributed to the well dispersed natural composite resulting in a slippery surface that can prevent fouling adhesion. It was concluded that the PUA/natural filler composite might be considered an eco-friendly and economical solution to the biofouling problem. KEY POINTS: • A novel strategy for anti-biofouling. • A new composite reduced Gram-negative bacteria.

Molecular Understanding of Fouling Induction and Removal: Effect of the Interface Temperature on Milk Deposits.

Molecular details concerning the induction phase of milk fouling on stainless steel at an elevated temperature range were established to better understand the effect of temperature on surface fouling during pasteurization. The liquid–solid interface that replicates an industrial heat exchanger (≤75°C), including four stages (preheating, heating, holding, and cooling), was investigated using both a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) and a customized flow cell. We found that the milk fouling induction process is rate-limited by the synergistic effects of bulk reactions, mass transfer, and surface reactions, all of which are controlled by both liquid and surface temperatures. Surface milk foulant becomes more rigid and compact as it builds up. The presence of protein aggregates in the bulk fluid leads to a fast formation of surface deposit with a reduced Young’s modulus. Foulant adhesion and cohesion strength was enhanced as both interfacial temperature and processing time increased, while removal force increased with an increasing deposit thickness. During cleaning, caustic swelling and removal showed semilinear correlations with surface temperature (TS), where higher TS reduced swelling and enhanced removal. Our findings evidence that adsorption kinetics, characteristics of the foulant, and the subsequent removal mechanism are greatly dependent on the temperature profile, of which the surface temperature is the most critical one.

Colloidal interactions between model foulants and engineered surfaces: Interplay between roughness and surface energy

Fouling on submerged surfaces is a major limiting factor for membranes, heat exchangers, and marine vessels as it induces mass and heat transfer resistances that increase operating costs and lead to system failures. While the role of surface roughness on fouling has been extensively studied, the specific effect of surface roughness on fouling is debated in literature. In this study, we employed force spectroscopy based on atomic force microscopy with two model colloidal probes to elucidate the role of surface roughness on foulant-surface interactions. Specifically, we quantified the strength and characteristic lengths of the interactions between the colloidal probes and hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces with and without surface texture. We found that hydrophilic surfaces are generally less prone to foulant adhesion than hydrophobic surfaces and that increasing roughness of a hydrophilic surface mitigates foulant adhesion. In comparison, we found that increased roughness of a hydrophobic surface increases the attractive foulant-surface interaction, and thus, its fouling propensity. Based on the results from this study, the implications for developing surfaces with fouling resistance are also examined.

Reduced Biofilm Formation at the Air-Liquid-Solid Interface via Introduction of Surfactants.

Reduced biofilm formation is highly desirable in applications ranging from transportation to separations and healthcare. Biofilms often form at the three-phase interface where air, liquid, and solid coexist due to the close proximity to nutrients and oxygen. Reducing biofilm formation at the triple interface presents challenges because of the conflicting requirements for hydrophobicity at the air-solid interface (for self-cleaning properties) and for hydrophilicity at the liquid-solid interface (for reduced foulant adhesion). Meeting those needs simultaneously likely entails a dynamic surface, capable of shifting the surface energy landscape in response to wetting conditions and thus enabling hydrophobicity in air and hydrophilicity in water. Here, we designed a facile approach to render existing surfaces resistant to biofilm formation at the triple interface. By adding trace amounts (∼0.1 mM) of surfactants, biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (known to form biofilm at the triple interface) was reduced on all surfaces tested, ranging from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, polar to nonpolar. That reduced fouling was not a result of the known antimicrobial effects. Instead, it was attributed to the surface-adsorbed surfactants that dynamically control surface energy at the triple interface. To further understand the effect of surfactant-surface interactions on biofilm reduction, we systematically varied the surfactant charge type and surface properties (surface energy and charge). Electrostatic interactions between surfactants and surfaces were identified as an influential factor when predicting the relative fouling reduction upon introduction of surfactants. Nevertheless, biofilm formation was reduced even on the charge-neutral, fluorinated surface made of poly(1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate) by more than 2-fold simply via adding 0.2 mM dodecyl trimethylammonium chloride or 0.3 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate. Given its robustness, this strategy is broadly applicable for reducing fouling on existing surfaces, which in turn improves the cost-effectiveness of membrane separations and mitigates contaminations and nosocomial infections in healthcare.

Coupling of Immobilized Photosynthetic Bacteria with a Graphene Oxides/PSF Composite Membrane for Textile Wastewater Treatment: Biodegradation Performance and Membrane Anti-Fouling Behavior.

The membrane bioreactor (MBR), as one of the promising technologies, has been widely applied for treatments of wastewater. However, serious membrane fouling and low microbial activity have been reported as major problems hindering the development of the MBR. To overcome these drawbacks, we intend to improve the MBR process in the view of membrane surface modification and efficient granular bacteria cultivation. In the present study, immobilized photosynthetic bacteria integration with graphene oxide (GO)/polysulfone (PSF) composite membrane separation (IPMBR) was first applied for textile wastewater treatment. Due to the high activity of immobilized cells, the IPMBR system exhibited higher efficiency on the removal of color, ammonia–nitrogen, and chemical oxygen demand than the conventional MBR system. In comparison with a pure PSF membrane, GO/PSF composite membrane presented the higher hydrophilicity (water contact angles of 62.9°) and more attractive permeability (178.5 L/m2h) by reducing the adhesion of hydrophobic foulants. During the whole operation, the immobilized photobioreactor exhibited approximately seven times higher membrane permeability that that of the conventional MBR. Meanwhile, the effect of the structure and character of immobilized photosynthetic bacteria on the membrane fouling reduction was investigated in detail. The change of extracellular polymeric substance concentration, settleability and particle size of flocs was very beneficial to alleviate membrane fouling. As a result, this research will open a new avenue for developing efficient and anti-fouling MBR technology in the future.

Fabrication of a Ceramic Membrane with Antifouling PTFE Coating for Gas-Absorption Desulfurization

The composition of ship exhaust gas is complex and a great challenge to the long-term stability of a membrane contactor. In this work, a facile method for constructing a functional surface on an alumina membrane substrate was realized for antiparticle or antidust adhesion in the process of exhaust-gas desulfurization. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanoparticles were dispersed, coated, and thermally sintered on the outer surface of an alumina membrane substrate to obtain a robust defect-free layer that exhibited hydrophobicity and a low friction coefficient. The PTFE coating served as a protective layer with low surface energy, low surface roughness, and a low coefficient of friction, which reduced the adhesion of foulants and facilitated their release. Meanwhile, the porous alumina substrate, wetted by an ammonia solution, still achieved excellent membrane absorption performance for SO2. In desulfurization and antiparticle testing, the PTFE-coated membrane not only showed the same absorption performance as the original membrane but also demonstrated greater resistance to particle adhesion in a dusty environment throughout 12 h of testing. These results indicated that the designed membrane can be utilized for gas absorption in a dusty environment.

Micro-patterned membranes prepared via modified phase inversion: Effect of modified interface on water fluxes and organic fouling

The introduction of patterns on a membrane-solute interface has been suggested as an effective method to tackle the reduced flux and fouling issues. Herein, the effectiveness of using spray-modified non-solvent induced phase separation (s-NIPS) to create a variety of micrometer-level structured interfaces is now studied. Circular, triangular and rectangular patterns with different dimensions were successfully created on polyacrylonitrile membranes. The rectangular pattern height was varied from 500 to 1500 µm, which resulted in a proportional increase in clean water permeance from 590 ± 47 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 to 1345 ± 108 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 respectively. This coincided with some BSA rejection loss for the highest patterns, indicating the fragile nature of these tall features. No significant rejection losses were found for the smaller pattern heights (145–250 µm) as compared to flat membranes, while fluxes more than doubled still. The critical pressure was also increased substantially for patterned membranes and showed a proportionality with the pattern height. These experimental findings were correlated with the reduced foulant adhesion due to a shear-induced slip boundary layer at the membrane-solution interface. Computational fluid dynamics simulations further showed higher shear stress values due to flow constriction within the membrane’s valley regions. These findings indicate the high potential of s-NIPS patterned membranes in long-term industrial applications by requiring less membrane area for a given application and reducing cleaning interventions.

Polysulfone/halloysite composite membranes with low fouling properties and enhanced compaction resistance

In the present study, polysulfone (PSF) ultrafiltration membranes incorporated with varying amounts of halloysite nanotubes (Hal) were fabricated via immersion precipitation membrane casting technique. Membrane characterization by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed that the composite membranes showed notable changes in the morphology, roughness, and distribution of Hal within the membrane matrix. SEM images, pore size, and porosity estimations indicated that the incorporation of low to medium Hal loadings resulted in PSF/Hal membranes with smaller surface pore size, lower porosity, and thicker top skin layer due to the strong interfacial interactions between Hal and PSF matrix. The addition of 5 wt% Hal reduces the composite membrane's contact angle by 14o from the 78.7o of the pristine membrane. The incorporation of 0.2 wt% Hal resulted in a 140% increase in the top surface Young's modulus of the composite membrane, and a notably reduced adhesion of hydrophobic foulants compared to the pristine PSF membrane. During the filtration of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and skimmed milk (SM) solutions, the PSF membranes incorporated with 0.2 and 0.5 wt% Hal showed excellent rejection and flux recovery as well as revealed strong anti-fouling and compaction resistance properties.

A polyvinylpyrrolidone-based surface-active copolymer for an effective marine antifouling coating

Currently, it is highly desirable to develop a stable and effective antifouling coating in maritime industries. In this work, a novel surface-active copolymer basing on hydrophilic polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and hydrophobic poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was designed and incorporated into a crosslinked PDMS matrix to form a surface-renewable antifouling coating. In the copolymer, PVP segments possessed a chemical stability and could prevent the settlement of fouling organisms attributable to its strong hydrophilicity; PDMS endowed the copolymer with compatibility to PDMS matrix and could efficiently reduce the fouling adhesion strength attributable to the low surface energy. Based on the surface-active copolymer, the coating could be reconstructed underwater in response to the environment forming a renewable surface to promote the fouling-release property. In addition, a set of controllable composition coatings were prepared to investigate the effects of surface chemistry on antifouling and fouling-release performance. Laboratory bioassays against marine unicellular diatom adhesion (∼99 % reduction) and mimetic barnacle attachment (∼81 % reduction) demonstrated an outstanding antifouling and fouling-release property of the copolymer-based coating compared to pristine PDMS, and the coating with a higher PVP content exhibited a better performance. Moreover, a long-term antifouling capability in marine field test (∼4 months) was also demonstrated. This work may offer a promising solution to the problems induced by marine biofouling.

Subsurface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization: effect of graft layer thickness and surface morphology on antibiofouling properties against different foulants

In this work, time-dependent growth of a poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) layer was realized on initiator-embedded and hydrophilic poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone)-containing (meth)acrylate resin, through subsurface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SSI-ATRP). The antibiofouling performance of PSBMA graft layers with different thicknesses was investigated by testing the adhesion of different foulants, including nanoscale protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA), microscale bacteria (Gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis)) and diatom (Chaetoceros calcitrans). It was found that the optimal thickness for anti-adsorption of nanoscale protein is ~ 2 µm at 1 h grafting, while that for microscale bacteria and diatom anti-adhesion is ~ 10 µm at 4 h grafting. The difference in the optimal thickness for different foulants may result from the combination of effective hydration layer and surface topography. Regarding nanoscale protein, a relatively thin hydration layer may be able to provide effective steric repulsion to resist nanoscale protein adsorption. However, a relatively thick surface hydration layer associated with high steric barrier and large scale structure might be required to prevent microscale foulants from attaching. This study highlights the importance of graft layer thickness, which is related to the thickness of surface hydration layer, and topography in governing the antibiofouling performance against different foulants.

Superhydrophilic polyvinylidene fluoride membrane with hierarchical surface structures fabricated via nanoimprint and nanoparticle grafting

The sustainable development of membrane separation technology is facing the severe challenge of membrane fouling problem. This paper proposed a novel strategy that combined nanoimprint lithography and nanoparticle grafting technology to fabricate antifouling polyvinylidene fluoride membranes. The nanoimprint process brought about a wave-like micro-scaled surface pattern with alternate concave and convex structures. The subsequent grafting process with amine-terminated nanoparticles further decorated the pattern into a hierarchically structured surface, which allowed a rapid (<1 s) complete wetting (i.e., contact angle = 0°) by water thus superhydrophilic. Besides, the obtained membrane (designated as imprinted_G) achieved an enhanced capability of solute rejection while maintaining a water permeability of ~8.4 × 10−7 m s−1 kPa−1 comparable with that of the pristine membrane (~8.6 × 10−7 m s−1 kPa−1). Furthermore, the superhydrophilic and hierarchical surface potentially led to a local hydration layer and turbulent flow, which resisted the adhesion and deposition of foulants, thereby endowing the membrane with dramatically enhanced antifouling capability. The imprinted_G membrane achieved the highest water production yield (~36% higher than the pristine membrane) with stable flux recovery rates in the filtration experiments with practical membrane bioreactor mixed liquor (containing activated sludge). Furthermore, the imprinted_G membrane exhibited a conspicuously improved capability in resisting biofouling of Bacillus thuringiensisd and Escherichia coli, demonstrating a promising prospect for practical applications.

A grafted-liquid lubrication strategy to enhance membrane permeability in viscous liquid separation

While membrane technology has shown promising separation applications, efficient separation of viscous organic liquids remains a great challenge as they can readily adhere to and foul membranes, leading to severely declined permeation flux and even failure of the membranes. Herein, a unique grafted-liquid lubrication strategy is introduced for the first time by covalently grafting highly flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes onto membranes to tackle the above challenge. The PDMS polymer brush featuring extremely low glass transition temperature (Tg: 127 °C) is rotationally dynamic at room temperature and acts as a liquid-like lubrication layer, which can both reduce the foulant adhesion and promote liquid slippage at the membrane-liquid interface. As a result, a remarkably improved permeation flux and superior antifouling ability towards highly viscous organic liquids (i.e., crude oil) are achieved for the PDMS-brush lubricated membrane compared with conventional solid membranes of similar surface structure and wettability. It is believed that the grafted-liquid lubrication strategy will open a promising avenue for developing high-performance membranes dealing with viscous liquids.

Multi-Foulant-Resistant Material Design by Matching Coating-Fluid Optical Properties.

The buildup of corrosion deposits, known as fouling, seriously hinders large-scale energy production. From nuclear power plants to geothermal reservoirs, fouling increases system pressure drops, impedes heat transfer, and accelerates corrosion, leading to derating and early failure. Here, we investigate the collodial interactions between multiple foulants and coated surfaces, with the aim of discovering principles for minimizing the adhesion of foulants to them. We hypothesize that matching the full refractive index spectrum of a coating to its surrounding fluid minimizes the adhesion of all foulants entrained within and that the Lifshitz theory is sufficient to predict which materials will be multi-foulant-resistant. First-principle calculations of Hamaker constants and refractive indices of six foulants on six coatings in water correlate well to direct measurements of adhesion by atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based force spectroscopy. Amorphous 2% fluorine-doped tin oxide, crystalline SiO2, CaF2, and Na3AlF6, which all nearly match the refractive index spectrum of water, successfully resisted adhesion of six diverse foulant materials in aqueous AFM measurements. The validation of this design principle may be expanded to design multi-fouling-resistant coatings for any system in which van der Waals forces are the dominant adhesion mechanism.

Quantification of interfacial energies associated with membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor by using BP and GRNN artificial neural networks

Interfacial energy between sludge foulants and rough membrane surface critically determines adhesive fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). As a current available method, the advanced extensive Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (XDLVO) approach cannot efficiently quantify the interfacial energy. In this study, novel methods including back propagation (BP) artificial neural network (ANN) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) were proposed to quantify the interfacial energy associated with the membrane fouling in an MBR. Different levels of 5 apparent input factors and the resulted interfacial energies were used as training and testing databases for establishment of ANN models. The established BP ANN and GRNN models exhibited high regression coefficients and accuracies, suggesting the high capacity of ANN models to capture the complicated non-linear mapping relations between interfacial energy and various factors. As compared with the advanced XDLVO approach, both BP ANN and GRNN showed remarkably improved quantification efficiency. Meanwhile, BP ANN showed better prediction performance than GRNN model. Case study further demonstrated the robustness and feasibility of BP ANN for interfacial energy quantification. This study provided a new approach to quantify interfacial energy associated with membrane fouling.