This paper is devoted to study the feasibility of combining photocatalytic degradation with membrane filtration for the removal of organic pollutants. As a result, we have successfully prepared lowcost microfiltration membranes based on clay and phosphate. It is expected that the phosphate and clay composite membrane can have multifunctional separation and photocatalysis simultaneously and this type of composite membrane can play an important role in the photocatalytic reaction in presence of TiO2 and the separation process. We then tested the efficiency of the direct coupling of photodegradation and filtration to determine the rate of release of TiO 2 particles through the microfiltration membrane. However, we have seen that the recovery of TiO 2 exceeds a 96%, as well as the removal of products from the photodecomposition of the reaction mixture in the membrane photocatalytic reactor. In our case the methylene blue elimination rate exceeds 75%.

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In the present study, the effect of zirconia powder content, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), Contact time and sintering temperature of zirconia microfiltration membrane elaboration were evaluated using Plackett-Burman design (PBD) and investigated by thickness and pore diameter. The zirconia microfiltration membrane has been prepared by the powder suspension technique. A deflocculated suspension of zirconia was obtained by mixing (5-10% w/w) of zirconia, (30-35% w/w) of PVA (12% w/w aqueous solution) as binder and water. The zirconia layer was deposited on the inner surface of clay support by slip casting with a contact time (2-5 min). After drying at room temperature, the ZrO2 membrane was sintered (800-1000°C) for 2 hours. By using PBD, sintering temperature, PVA and zirconia were recognized and selected as important effectives parameters of pore diameter; On the other hand, PVA and contact time were the main controlling parameters of the thickness of zirconia microfiltration layer. The optimal factors to elaborate the microfiltration membrane by using experimental design include a sintering temperature of 1000°C, zirconia content of 5%, PVA content of 30% and contact time of 2 min predicting a pores diameter of 0,24 µm and thickness of 24 µm.

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In this work, the porous ceramic multilayer ultrafiltration membrane is developed. Macroporous support was formed by extrusion of ceramic paste derived from natural Moroccan Sahara Clay. The microporous interlayer was then performed by slip casting from zirconia commercial powders and finally the active ultrafiltration toplayer was obtained by solgel route using TiO2 sol. The performance of TiO2 ultrafiltration membrane was evaluated by pores diameter, thickness of the top layer, water flux, and molecular weight cut off (MWCO). The water permeability measured for this composite membrane is 9.051 l/(m2·h·bar), the thickness is around 900nm, the pore diameter is centered near 7nm and the MWCO was about 5000Da.