Comparative analysis of fouling characteristics of ceramic and polymeric microfiltration membranes using filtration models

► Fouling of ceramic microfiltration membranes by PEG, NOM and synthetic river water was examined. ► Combined pore blockage-cake filtration and resistance-in-series models were applied. ► Models that had been applied to polymeric membranes were found suitable for ceramic membrane filtration. ► Both similarity and difference in fouling mechanism compared to polymeric membrane were observed. ► Ceramic membrane fouling was dominated by cake which was easily removed by physical cleaning.