Permeability behavior of silicon carbide‐based membrane and performance study for oily wastewater treatment

Abstract

Porous SiC ceramic is considered as a suitable material for hot gas filtration, microfiltration, and many others industrial applications. However, full utilizations of porous SiC ceramics have been limited by high‐processing costs. In this study, mullite‐bonded porous SiC ceramics membranes were prepared using commercial SiC powder, alumina, clay, and different sacrificial pore formers. The effect of different pore formers on the microstructure, mechanical strength, porosity and pore size distribution, air, and water permeability of porous SiC ceramics were investigated. The average pore diameter, porosities, and flexural strength of the final ceramics varied in the range 3.7‐6.5 µm, 38‐50 vol. %, and 28‐38 MPa, respectively, depending on the characteristics of pore former. The Darcian (k1) and non‐Darcian (k2) permeability evaluated from air permeation behavior at room temperature was found to vary from 1.48 × 10−13 to 4.64 × 10−13 m2 and 1.46 × 10−8 to 6.51 × 10−8 m, respectively. All membranes showed high oil rejection rate (89%‐93%) from feed wastewater with oil concentration of 1557 mg/L. The membrane with porosity ~48 vol% and mechanical strength 31.5 MPa showed and highest pure water permeability of 13 298 Lm−2h−1bar−1.

A review on the production of porous ceramics using organic and inorganic industrial waste

“…Table VIII lists the chemical compositions of various inorganic industrial wastes used as alternative raw materials in the production of porous ceramics. Among them, those from the brewing [33,34], ornamental rocks [35][36][37], ceramic [35,[38][39][40][41][42], metallurgical [43,44] and mining [45][46][47][48][49] industries, thermal power plants [96][97][98] and others [13,50,51,99] stand out. It is observed that the vast majority of these wastes are mainly composed of SiO 2 , that is, they can be used satisfactorily as sources of silica in ceramic technology.…”

“…Coal ash from power plants: coal ash is generated in large quantities as a by-product of thermal power plants [96], and is considered to be highly hazardous to the environment due to its persistently toxic trace elements [98]. In this sense, environmentally friendly use of this type of waste is an important issue for the prevention of environmental pollution [96]. The main chemical components of coal fly ash (silica, alumina) are similar to those of clays and kaolin, which are used as starting materials to fabricate porous ceramics [98].…”

Controlling the electrical resistivity of porous silicon carbide ceramics and their applications: A review

“…Silicon carbide (SiC) is an intriguing material owing to its remarkable properties and versatility, which make it suitable for numerous industrial applications. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Porous SiC ceramics with excellent mechanical properties, [9][10][11][12][13][14] high chemical stability, [15][16][17][18][19] good permeability, [20][21][22][23][24] and controllable thermal [25][26][27] and electrical properties [28][29][30] have gained immense attention for both structural and functional applications. Although the practical use of SiC has mostly been limited to structural applications, it has been extensively investigated recently [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] for advanced functional applications owing to its semiconductivity.…”

High‐temperature strength of liquid‐phase‐sintered silicon carbide ceramics: A review

“…Over the last few decades, silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics have been extensively utilized in various industries, including aerospace, aeronautics, automotive, biomedical, nuclear reactors, filtration, heat exchangers, concentrated solar power, thermoelectric conversion, catalytic support, membranes, thermal insulators, gas turbines, semiconductor processing parts, and diesel particulate filters, owing to their excellent high‐temperature stability, low bulk density, high thermal conductivity, excellent high‐temperature strength, high oxidation and corrosion resistances at high temperatures, and excellent chemical stability 1–38 …”