Development and Application of Ceramic Membranes for Treatment of Oily Wastes
Abstract
Commercially available γ-alumina powder were used for the preparation of disk type alumina supported composite membranes using pressure casting technique. The supports have been characterized by using mercury porosimetry and SEM studies. The effect of sintering time, temperature, pore size distribution and porosity of supports and their influence on separation have been studied. Titania, γ-alumina, silica or alumina-silica composite was applied singly or in succession on the supports to form an ultrathin layer by the sol–gel technique. The average pore size of the membranes were estimated from the solution rejection data (within the range of 0.10 - 0.20 µm). The average value of tortuosity factor (τ) obtained as 9.76. The oil separation characteristics of the developed membranes were studied using emulsified machine-cutting oil and silicone oil . Results show that the support (micro-porous alumina) itself rejects about 89% of the cutting oil from a 0.06% emulsified oil . The best separation performance (99.5 %) was achieved using indigenously developed alumina – silica composite membranes on alumina supports. A comparison of performance of developed membranes with some of those described in the literature for similar applications have been reported.