Preparation and characterization of ultrafiltration membranes for toxic removal from wastewater

The use of ceramic membrane in liquid pollution treatment is actually limited due to the price of ceramic membrane, nevertheless these membranes are more resistant to solvent, pH and oxidation. In this work the preparation of low cost TiO2(50%)-ZnAl2O4(50%) membranes deposited on an artificial cordierite support is presented. The pores diameter of the membrane is centered on 4nm, the water flux is 6.4 l−1 m−2 h−1 bar−1, thickness and molecular weight cut-off are respectively 1.2 µm and 3,000Da. High rejection of classical ionic solutes, heavy metal and dyes were obtained by a classical mechanism of Donnan exclusion. This kind of membrane gave promising results for possible wastewater treatment in emergent countries.

In this work we have shown that a low cost composite ultrafiltration ceramic membrane can be successfully developed using low cost ceramic support in the place of a classical α alumina support. The mechanism responsible for the rejection of salts is the electric interaction between the charged surface groups of the ceramic material and the ions present in the filtered [1] A.J. Burggraf and L. Cot, Fundamentals of Inorganic Membranes, Science and Technology, Elsevier Science and Technology Series 4, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1996. [2] Y. Elmarraki, M. Cretin, M. Persin, J. Sarrazin and A. Larbot, Mater. Res. Bull., 36 (2001) 227–237. [3] L. Broussous, Elaboration de nouvelles géométrie tubulaires de membrane céramiques: application à la réduction du colmatage, Thesis, Montpellier, France, 1999. [4] T. Van Gestel, C Vandecasteele, A. Buekenhoudt, C. Dotremont, J. Luyten, R. Leysen, B. Van der Bruggen and G. Maes, J. Membr. Sci., 209 (2002) 379–389. [5] Y. Elmarraki, M. Cretin, M. Persin, J. Sarrazin and A. Larbot, Sep. Purif. Technol., 25 (2001) 493–499. [6] J. Palmeri, P. Blanc, A. Larbot and P. David, J. Membr. Sci., 160 (1999) 141–170.