The development of membrane integrity and membrane performance (flux/tmp) is being recognized as one of the key parameters representing the quality of hollow fiber membranes.

In 2005 Norit X-Flow installed new generation XIGA-SXL membrane elements in three large Ultra-Filtration (UF) systems located in Australia, Germany and The Netherlands.

The integrity and performance of the membranes in these three plants is described below.

Total Capacity:	>250.000 m3/day
Measurement Period:	December 2005 - June 2006
Average TMP:	0.25 bar
Average Flux:	80 lmh
No. of installed elements:	3100
No. of membrane fibers:	>36,000,000
No. of fiber defects:	0 (non detectable)

During the measurement period the performance of the three plants has been well within the guaranty values.
The XIGA-SXL membrane element is the successor of the XIGA-S membrane element that has been in operation in hundreds of applications around the world since 1996. The new XIGA-SXL has 15% more membrane surface and can be installed in most of the UF systems currently equipped with the S-225.