Protein fouling is a complex mechanism. To enhance understanding
on protein fouling of membranes, the target of this study is twofold:
(i) to determine the relative influences of parameters via the Random
Forest (RF) model and (ii) to evaluate the predictive capability of
the Neural Network (NN) model. Membrane pore size is the most dominant
influence on fouling followed by transmembrane pressure (TMP), while
membrane configuration (i.e., flat-sheet, hollow fiber, or tubular)
is the least dominant. The NN model gives modest predictive capability
despite inconsistencies and variabilities of the experimental setups
and protocols, which invariably affects the important parameters in
the database compiled from past publications. The database was divided
into microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) subsets based
on the membrane pore size values. It was found that the dominant parameters
for permeate flux are different, with membrane pore size and protein
concentration being dominant for MF and UF, respectively, while TMP
is dominant for protein rejection for both cases. For permeate flux,
membrane material is the most dominant parameter for the non-BSA database,
while membrane pore size remains the most dominant parameter for protein
rejection regardless of the protein used. Results show that such data-driven
RF and NN models can enhance the understanding on the relative dominance
of the parameters on different phenomena and provide adequate prediction
of protein fouling, in the absence of any governing equations.
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