[eluser]m4rw3r[/eluser]
I've found an error in the User Guide, section Database Queries - Protecting identifiers
The protect_identifier() method seems to be non existent in the db class (PHP cannot find it).
I have now used _protect_identifiers() instead, It works (using MySQL driver).
$this->db->protect_identifier('table_name');
should probably be
$this->db->_protect_identifiers('table_name');
unless you add a new function in the db class / MySQL driver