Preparation and application of low-cost ceramic membranes for separation of oil-water emulsion

Abstract

This work presents the impact of fabricating pressure on the performance of ceramic membranes during the dead-end microfiltration of an oil-water emulsion. The membranes used in this study were fabricated at a pressure of 40 kN and 100 kN using the dry compaction method. The membrane characterization was done using XRD and FTIR analysis. The membrane performance was evaluated by carrying dead-end microfiltration experiments using synthetic oil-water emulsion as a feed at a trans-membrane pressure of 30 psi. The experimental results confirmed that the membrane fabricated at higher fabricating pressure (100 kN) gives better performance in terms of maximum oil rejection of 95.7% with the maximum flux of 2.04x10-3 m3/m2.s.