One-step engineering of low-cost kaolin/fly ash ceramic membranes for efficient separation of oil-water emulsions

Efficient construction of ceramic membranes can decrease the cost and ease the process of wastewater treatment. The total cost of ceramic membranes is mainly determined by the cost of raw materials and energy consumption during sintering process. In this work, fly ash particles recycled from electric plant and kaolin materials were respectively employed as the support and membrane layer of composite ceramic membranes. To match the sintering temperature of the kaolin material and fly ash support, rigid alumina particles were introduced into the supports (AFA supports). Also, the bending strength of the supports was improved when adding alumina par-ticles. The kaolin/fly ash ceramic membrane was obtained by spraying the kaolin dispersion on the AFA supports and co-sintering. The mean pore diameter and water permeance of the membranes were 320 nm and 3650 Lm