Apparatus and method for analyzing influence variable on membrane fouling of seawater desalination system

An apparatus for analyzing membrane fouling of a seawater desalination system, the apparatus comprising:

• a variable reception unit configured to receive variables affecting membrane fouling of a seawater desalination system collected by a plurality of sensors included in the seawater desalination system;
• a memory that includes a variable storage unit configured to store the received variables affecting membrane fouling of a seawater desalination system;
• a processor that includes a dominant variable selection unit configured to select at least one dominant variable among the stored variables by
• performing a multiple linear regression in which each dependent variable (y) of a single feature variable (xj) belonging to a feature matrix (X) of the variables affecting the membrane fouling is determined using a PME (Progressive Model Enhancement) algorithm,
• repeating a process of at least one of sequentially including the variables affecting the membrane fouling in the multiple linear regression until improvement in the multiple linear regression is no longer obtained, and sequentially excluding the variables affecting the membrane fouling in the multiple linear regression until improvement in the multiple linear regression is no longer obtained, and
• determining the improvement based on a change in a likelihood of the multiple linear regression;
• a derivation unit configured to determine a correlation between the selected dominant variable and the membrane fouling;
• and
• a variable control unit configured to control the seawater desalination system to control the dominant variable.