In this paper a control strategy is formulated that minimizes the costs for a single chemical cleaning of a dead-end ultra filtration membrane. From the process model, the performance index and the constraints it can be derived that dynamic optimization will lead to a 'maximum effort control problem', in which the controls (cleaning flow and cleaning agent concentration) are either zero or maximum. The change from maximum to zero is called the switching point. This switching point depends on the overall cleaning time and the requested cleaning effectiveness. From the calculated optimal control strategy it follows that cleaning time can be significantly reduced, compared to conventional cleaning. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.