article · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Conventional ceramic membranes for wastewater treatment often rely on coating techniques that are expensive, slow, and difficult to control at industrial scale. To address these challenges, low-cost porous ceramic membranes were fabricated using Moroccan red clay combined with tea waste as a bio-based pore-forming additive. The physical, structural, and mechanical properties of the membranes were evaluated using techniques including scanning electron microscopy, diffraction, and strength testing. Filtration trials confirmed that the resulting materials successfully removed suspended matter, chemical oxygen demand, and turbidity from water samples. The optimised membrane reached a permeability of 1249 L/h.m2.bar, achieving turbidity removal rates of 99.76% for seawater and 99.16% for tannery wastewater. This work demonstrates an effective approach for treating complex industrial effluents and seawater using accessible natural materials and agricultural waste.
Water scarcity and industrial pollution create an urgent need for practical, affordable filtration systems. Conventional ceramic membranes often remain too expensive and complex to fabricate for widespread use. Utilising common clay and discarded tea waste offers an accessible route to manufacture robust membranes that can purify difficult industrial effluents like tannery wastewater while also desalinating or clarifying seawater.
This process could enable lower-cost filtration units for industrial wastewater managers, notably in the tanning sector, alongside seawater pre-treatment operators. The work is at an applied and tested stage, having demonstrated filtration performance on real tannery wastewater and seawater samples in laboratory evaluations. Further commercial progression would require verifying production repeatability and membrane durability under continuous, large-scale industrial operating conditions.
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In wastewater treatment, the application of ceramic membranes has gained significant attention due to their potential for highly effective filtration. These membranes are typically produced using methods such as spin coating, dip-coating, and spray coating. However, these techniques have limitations when applied to large-scale industrial applications due to their high cost, time consuming process, and difficulty of control. Moreover, obtaining a complete and uniform coating typically requires several attempts. This research demonstrates the highly effective treatment of tannery wastewater using cost-effective porous ceramic membranes, by incorporating bio-based materials, such as tea waste, as porosifying additives into the main material, which is Moroccan red clay. Various analytical techniques, including X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TDA-TG), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and the Archimedes principle test, were used to investigate the properties of these ceramic membranes. The impact of the pore-forming agents on the membranes physical and mechanical properties, such as open porosity, bulk density, average pore diameter, flexural and indirect tensile strength, was evaluated. Filtration tests demonstrated effective removal of turbidity, suspended matter and chemical oxygen demand from the wastewater. The optimized membrane exhibited a permeability of 1249 L/h.m2.bar and turbidity removal efficiencies of 99.76% for seawater and 99.16% for tannery wastewater.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.arabjc.2023.105277
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