(255e) One Step Co-Sintering Process for Low-Cost Fly Ash Based Ceramic Microfiltration Membrane

Ceramic membrane, with higher chemical stability and organic solvent resistance, had become an important methodogy for water purification. However, the fabrication of low cost membrane with both high water flux and smaller pore size is a challenge. Herein, we designed a new process to fabricate fly ash based MF membrane via co-sintering process. In the new process, the MF layer was sprayed on “green” fly ash support and co-sintered. The mullite whiskers with excellent heat resistance and stability were proposed not only to alleviate the shrinkage difference in the co-sintering process, but also improve the porosity and bending strength of the support. Both the raw material, energy consumption as well as preparation period of ceramic membrane could be greatly reduced. The ceramic MF membrane showed an average pore size of 100 nm with a higher permeability of 450 Lm^-2h^-1bar^-1. It was observed that the MF membrane showed a high TOC efficiency (> 99 %) for O/W emulsion while maintaining a high stable permeability of 165 Lm^-2h^-1bar^-1. This technique combing the low-cost material and co-sintering process is expected to guide a cost-effective methodogy to produce a high-performance ceramic membrane for water purification.