Fabrication, characterization, fouling behavior and performance study of ceramic microfiltration membranes for oily wastewater treatment

Abstract

Four types of low-cost, high-performance ceramic microfiltration membranes have been fabricated and characterized using different analytic approaches for oily wastewater treatment. Mullite, mullite-alumina (MA) with 10–50 wt% alumina, mullite-alumina-zeolite (MAZ) with 10–40 wt% zeolite/alumina and mullite-zeolite (MZ) with 10–50 wt% zeolite content have been made using local clays. Factors such as their pure water permeation flux, oil rejection performance and permeation flux (PF) have been compared. Experimental results showed that MA 50% membranes have the highest steady-state PF of 549 Lm−2h−1 among all the membranes at operating conditions with a cross-flow of velocity (CFV) = 1.5 m s−1, transmembrane pressure (TMP) = 3 bar and temperature (T) = 35 ○C. The lowest and highest oil rejection results for the membranes were 95.89% and 98.77% for MZ 10% and MZ 50% membranes, respectively. Also, Hermia’s models accurately predict experimental data showing a PF decline over time during treatment.