Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Clay Science

jo ur na l ho mep ag e: www.el sevier. c om/ l o c ate/ clay

Preparation and characterization of low-cost ceramic microfiltration

membranes for the removal of chromate from aqueous solutions
Somen Jana, M.K. Purkait ⁎, Kaustubha Mohanty ⁎
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781039, India

a r t i c l e i n f o ab s t r a c t

Article history: Low-cost ceramic microfiltration membranes were prepared using clay of IIT Guwahati.
Received 23 October 2009
Two membranes were prepared by paste casting followed by sintering at different
Received in revised form 17
temperatures, the first one from clay only (membrane A) and the second one from clay
November 2009 Accepted 18
with small amounts of sodium carbonate, sodium metasilicate and boric acid
November 2009
Available online 26 November 2009 (membrane B). Both the membranes were characterized by TGA, SEM, XRD, water
permeability test and acid–base treatment. With the increase of sintering temperature,
Keywords: pore size as well as permeability and flexural strength were increasing while porosity
Clay and pore density were decreasing. The overall performance of membrane B was better
Ceramic membrane
than membrane A. The average pore size, porosity, pore density and flexural strength
Micellar enhanced
of membrane B sintered at 1000 °C were 4.58 μm, 0.42, 2.06 × 1010 m− 2 and
microfiltration Chromate
11.55 MPa respectively. This membrane was used for the removal of chromate from
removal
aqueous solutions by micellar enhanced microfiltration (MEMF) using cetylpyridinium
chloride (CPC). 100% rejection of chromate ions were obtained at a feed ratio
(CPC/chromate) of 10. Based on raw material prices, the membrane cost was
estimated to be $19/m2. The prepared low-cost membrane showed good promise for
the treatment of wastewater containing such heavy metals.
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Initial days of research on ceramic membrane

preparation were concentrated on pillared clays (Mishra

Advantages of ceramic membranes includes and Parida, 1997). The preparation of ceramic membranes

resistance to corro- sive feed, high temperature using pure clays has started very recently. Moroccan
applicability, consistency in high pres- sure application clay was used to prepare different kinds of porous
and long life. Early research on the preparation of ceramic membranes deposited on tubular support and a
ceramic membranes has utilized expensive α-Al2O3 as a pore size of 9.25 to 10.5 μm was reported (Saffaj et al.,
precursor (DeFriend et al., 2003). Afterwards γ-Al2O3, 2006). The mechanical strength of support was 10 MPa
zirconia, titania, and silica were used for membrane at 1250 °C sintering temperature. In a very recent work,
synthesis (Yoshino et al., 2005). Recently some ceramic microfiltration membranes were prepared from
researchers have started to work with cheaper raw Tunisian clay with a pore size of
materials like apatite powder (Masmoudia et al.,
2007), fly ash (Dong et al., 2006), kaolin (Almandoza ⁎ Corresponding authors. Tel.: + 91 361 2582267/62; fax: + 91 361
et al., 2004) etc. to reduce the cost of the membrane. 2582291.

Due to the well-known structural adsorption, E-mail addresses: mihir@iitg.ernet.in (M.K. Purkait),
kmohanty@iitg.ernet.in (K. Mohanty).
rheological and thermal properties of clay minerals,
membranes from clays are gaining a lot of attention.
around 10 μm (Khemakhem et al., 2009). This pollution source. Previously different pro- cesses were
membrane was applied for the treatment of cuttlefish used for the removal of these ions. With the progress of
effluent.
technology, membrane processes like reverse
The potential use of ceramic microfiltration
osmosis have been applied for removal of metal ions.
membranes in various fields like chemistry, food,
Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) is one
biotechnology and wastewater treatments are
promising technology in which surfactant molecules
increasing (Cham and Brownstein, 1991). Reverse
absorb inorganic and organic molecules from water
osmosis are being used for removal of metal ions
solution (Purkait et al., 2004). A more recent approach is
from waste water which was previously processed by
micellar flocculation followed by microfiltration. By this
precipitation (Dean et al., 1972), flocculation (Rout et
technology the membrane process can be run at a
al., 2006), adsorption (Mohanty et al., 2005), and
much lower pressure (6–8 atm), thus reducing the
ion- exchange (Ten'orio and Espinosa, 2001).
operating cost (Das et al., 2008).
However, reverse osmosis requires a high operating
During micellar flocculation, high charge ions bind to
pressure (sometimes more than 25 atm) leading to
the surface of the micelle and these surface charges
high capital and operating costs (Purkait et al., 2004).
lead to the flocculation of the micelle. Micellar
Wastewater from different industries like metal
flocculation has been studied with different sur-
plating, metal mines or coal refining contains many
factants like SDS (Paton-Morales and Talens-Alesson,
heavy metal ions which are a potential environmental
2002; Talens-

0169-1317/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.clay.2009.11.036
318 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324

Alesson et al., 2006), CPC (Purkait et al., 2008), and a For the analysis of thermal transformations during the
mixture of CPC and SDS (Das et al., 2008). Purkait et al. whole sintering process, thermo-gravimetric analysis
(2008) have reported the 85% and 100% settling of (TGA) of membrane A and membrane B were conducted
K2Cr2O7 and KMnO4 for the surfactant to substrate from 30 °C to 950 °C (Mettler-851e). All membranes were
ratio of 10. However, at a higher ratio of CPC to investigated by XRD (Bruke D8, advanced X-ray
dichromate, the removal of K2Cr2O7 has not been diffraction measurement system) to study the phase
reported. changes and SEM (Leo 1430 vp) to determine average
The objective of the present work is to prepare low-
pore size and pore size distribution. Porosity and flexural
cost ceramic
membranes from local clays. Two different strength (Universal tensile testing machine, Dutt-

membranes were prepared, one with pure clay and 101) were also determined. Water permeation

another with clay mixed with sodium carbonate, experiments were carried out to evaluate the average

sodium metasilicate and boric acid. pore size and permeability. Chemical stability of the
membranes was checked by comparing the porosity,
pore size, permeability and mechanical strength before
2. Materials and methods
and after acid and base treatment. This was done by
immersing the membranes in a solution of NaOH (pH=
2.1. Raw material
13.5) and HCl (pH= 1.0) separately for 72 h.
2.1.1. Clay
After drying of the raw muddy clay from IIT Guwahati 2.3. Water permeability
campus at 120 °C, it was ground in a ball mill and
passed through 150 mesh screen. All the membranes All membranes were subjected to water permeation
experiments (Fig. 1) using deionized water. Hydraulic
were prepared with − 150 mesh clay powder. The
permeability (Lh) and average pore diameter (rl) were
chemical analysis was done by X-ray fluorescence
determined by the equation (Almandoza et al., 2004):
(Philips, PW 2440 MagiXPRO) and particle size
distribution was measured in a laser particle size nπr4 ΔP
analyzer (Malvern, Masterizer-2000. Model: APA-5005). J= = Lh ΔP ð1Þ
8μl
Basic properties of the clay like pH, bulk density, organic
matter content and soluble matter content were where, J is the liquid flux (m3m− 2
s− 1), ∆P is the

determined by standard procedures (Chesworth, 2008). transmembrane pressure (kPa), μ is the viscosity of
water, and l the pore length (i.e. thickness of
membrane, assuming the pores are cylindrical). Taking
2.1.2. Chemicals
porosity, ε =nπr2 (n = number of pores per unit area and
Sodium metasilicate (Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd.), sodium
r = radius of pore), Eq. (1) can be changed to:
carbonate (Rankem, India) and boric acid (Loba Chemie
Pvt. Ltd.) were used for membrane preparation. Sodium 8μlLh 0: 5

metasilicate increases mechanical strength by

creating silicate bonds. Sodium carbonate improves
dispersion properties, thereby creating homogeneity. ð2Þ
rl =
Boric acid also ε
increases mechanical strength by creating
metaborates during
sintering (Reed, 1995). Potassium dichromate (SD Fine partial drying in room temperature for 24 h, the disc was
Chemicals) was used as the source of chromate ions and removed carefully and heated at 100 °C for 12 h.
cetylpyridinium chloride (Loba Chemie Pvt. Ltd.) as Eventually, the caste disc was heated step by step (50 °C
cationic surfactant. in every 15 min) in a programmable muffle furnace (Naskar
& Co.; 140QT) to the desired sintering temperature and

2.2. Membrane preparation and characterization technique kept in this temperature for 6 h. Then, the temperature of
the muffle furnace was cooled gradually to room
Both the membranes were prepared by paste casting temperature. Finally, the membrane was polished with
(Almandoza et al., 2004) from the compositions given in silicon carbide abrasive paper (C-180) to give a final shape of
Table 1. The materials were mixed with distilled water and around 50 mm diameter and 5 mm thickness as well as
the paste was casted over a gypsum surface in the washed in distilled water and dried. Membrane A was
shape of a circular disc of 52 mm diameter and 6 mm prepared at three different sintering temperatures of 900
thickness by a dice made from perspex sheet. After °C, 950 °C and 1000 °C, membrane B at 800 °C, 900 °C and
1000 °C. Membrane A sintered at 800 °C was not
The porosity was figured out by pycnometric method
considered further due to its very lower flexural strength.
using water as a wetting liquid (Nandi et al., 2008). The
transmembrane pressure drop for these experiments
was in the range of 10–325 kPa. Before the experiment,
Table 1
standard compaction tests were conducted at a
Compositions of membrane A and membrane B.
pressure of 380 kPa which was above the operating
Materials Membrane A (wet Membrane B (wet
pressure. The flux was initially high and reduced to a
Clay (%) basis)
70 basis)
70
Sodium carbonate Nil 3 steady value in 2–3 h. These data was taken by
(%)
Sodium metasilicate Nil 1.5 measuring the permeate volume in every 10 s. In the
(%)
Boric acid (%) Nil 1.5
Water (%) 30 24 next stage of the experiment, the flux through the
membrane was mea- sured with respect to different
pressures. From the slope of ∆P vs. J (r2 values were
between 0.98 and 0.99), the hydraulic permeability (Lh)
was obtained by Eq. (1). With this value and porosity
value, the average pore radius was calculated by Eq. (2).

2.4. Chromate removal

During the mixing of surfactant with dichromate,

two cetylpyr- idinium (CP) ions bind with one
chromate oxyanion forming (CP)x- chromate and
flocculation starts. More than 80% dichromate was
flocculated (Purkait et al., 2008). The removal of the
flocks was tried by microfiltration. Flocculations of
micelles depended on the molar ratios of surfactant to
dichromate. Different ratios between 0.1 and 160 were
prepared and micelle flocculation was visually observed.
All the experiments were done with deionized water.
During microfiltration experiments, 200 mL of each
solution with different ratios (0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 5,
10, 20, 50 and 100) were prepared by keeping the CPC
concentration constant (1000 mg L− 1) while varying
potassium dichromate concentrations. All these above
mentioned solutions were passed through membrane
B (sintered at 1000 °C). The permeate from the bottom
of the cell was collected and cumulative mass was
continuously measured. Then the cumulative mass was
converted to cumulative volumes and from the slope
of the cumulative volume versus the time curve, the
permeate flux was obtained as a function of operating
time. This was observed for a
 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324 319

Fig. 1. Experimental setup used for water permeation test and microfiltration
experiment.

particular ratio (1.0) at three different pressures viz.
69, 104 and 134 kPa. Another flux change profile was
determined for different ratios used at a particular
pressure (104 kPa) and particular time (300 s). The
rejection % (R) was calculated from the initial concen-
tration (Ci) and final concentrations (Cf) based on the
formula:
Cf
R = 1−
Þ
Ci
Standard techniques (Vogel, 1970) were applied to
determine the concentration of CPC and potassium
dichromate by UV–vis spectro- photometry (Varian-
Cary 50 Bio).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Clay properties
Basic properties of clay like pH (6.6), bulk density
(1230 kg m− 3),
organic matter (0.96%) and soluble matter (3.0%) were
obtained. The
total component analysis and particle size distribution
results of clay are shown in Table 2 and Fig. 2,
respectively.
3.2. Structural characterization of the membranes
950 °C, membrane A and membrane B showed overall
mass losses of 4.07% and 9.68%, respectively. From the
comparison of the two TGA graphs, it was observed
that the higher mass loss of membrane B occurred
between 300 °C to 500 °C. This phenomenon may be
attributed to the fact that the boiling point of boric
acid as a component of membrane B is around 300 °C.
After 675 °C, for both the compositions, mass change
× 100
was marginal. Thus, the minimum sintering temperature
ð3
for both membranes should be above 675 °C.
3.2.2. X-ray diffraction analysis
From XRD analysis of both compositions before
sintering reflec- tions of illite, kaolinite and quartz
were observed (Fig. 4). In the sintered samples, no
reflection of kaolinite was found due to trans-
formation to metakaolinite (Saffaj et al., 2006). For
membrane A (sintered at 900 °C) and membrane B
(sintered at 800 °C), reflections of illite were found but
were not seen at higher temperatures. At higher
temperature, mullite reflections were appearing. In
membrane B a reflection of nephiline (Na O, Al O , 2SiO
) was detected. Quartz
2 2 3 2
a mass loss of 4.2%. These mass losses can be attributed to
the loss of loosely bound water molecules (Nandi et al.,
2008). The higher mass loss of membrane B during this
phase was due to the presence of some hygroscopic
materials (like sodium metasilicate, boric acid). At
temperatures up to

3.2.1. Thermo-gravimetric analysis

During the first phase of heating the mass loss of Table 2
membrane B was more than membrane A (Fig. 3). Up to XRF data of clay.

90 °Ccomponents
Main mass loss of membrane A
in mass% was 0.23% and
membrane
Na MgB was 3.07%
Al and up to 150 °C the mass loss of
Si K Ca Fe
membrane
Na2O A was 0.38%
MgO Al2O3 whereas
SiO2 membrane
K2O B had shown
CaO FeO
2.065 1.518 17.097 71.59 1.901 1.465 3.236
5
Trace components in
reflections did not change significantly. Thus membrane
A consists of
mullite and quartz, membrane B mullite, quartz and
nephiline.

3.2.3. Surface morphology

SEM images (Fig. 5) showed that with increasing
temperature, the structure of the membranes became
dense. SEM also detects the small cracks on the
membrane surface (if any).

Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of the clay.

320 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324

the ImageJ software. Average pore diameters (ds) were

calculated by Eq. (4)

2 n 3
2 0:5
∑ n i di
6 7
ds =66i =1n 7
7 ð4Þ
4 5
i∑= 1 ni

where n is the number of pores, and di is the pore

diameter (μm) of the i-th pore. The average pore size of
membrane A (Fig. 6, Table 3) was lower than the
average pore size of membrane B. At 900 °C sintering,
the average pore diameter of membrane A and
membrane B was 2.16 and 4.73 μm. The average pore size
increased with the increasing sintering temperature. For
membrane A, the average pore diameter was changed
from 2.16 to 3.91 μm between 900 °C and 1000 °C, for
membrane B from 4.08 μm to 4.92 μm between 800 °C
and 1000 °C. The reason was the overlapping of small
pores creating large pores at higher sintering
temperature. Similar results were reported by Saffaj et al.
(2006).

3.2.5. Surface pore density

Fig. 3. Thermo-gravimetric analysis of membrane A and membrane B.
Surface pore density represents the average number of
pores present per unit area of the membrane surface. It
was calculated from the SEM images (Table 3). It

3.2.4. Pore size distribution and area average pore diameter from SEM
SEM images from different sections of the
membrane were considered and around 600 pore
diameters were measured using
decreased with the increasing sintering tempera- ture.
For membrane A, pore density decreased from 13.3 ×
1010 m− 2 to
3.50 × 1010 m− 2 between 900 °C and 1000 °C, for
membrane B, from
4.28 × 1010 to 2.09 × 1010 between 800 °C to 1000 °C. This
change was
Fig. 4. XRD analysis of the membrane. (a) Membrane A; (b) membrane B.
 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324 321

Fig. 5. SEM pictures of membrane A and membrane B, prepared at different sintering temperatures.

3.3.2. Average pore diameter

also representative of the overlapping of many small
The average pore diameter again decreased with an
pores to a smaller number of large pores at higher
increase of sintering temperature (Table 3). The pore
sintering temperature.
size obtained from SEM

3.3. Water permeation experiment

3.3.1. Porosity
Porosity decreased with the increase of the sintering
temperature (Table 3). This was mainly due to
squeezing of the membrane body during sintering and
overlapping of small pores during creation of large
pores.
images was larger than from water permeability
experiments. This was due to the presence of dead-end-
pores which were incorporated in SEM image analysis
but not integrated in the water permeability experiments.

3.4. Mechanical strength

The flexural strength was calculated by a three

point bending strength method (Table 3). The flexural
strength was increased with increasing sintering
temperature (Nandi et al., 2008). For membrane A,
flexural strength increased from 2.54 MPa (900 °C
sintered) to 3.79 MPa (1000 °C sintered), for membrane
B, from 1.54 MPa (800 °C sintered) to
11.55 MPa (1000 °C sintered). This was due to the
formation of nephiline as indicated by XRD. Literature
also reveals that nephiline gives higher mechanical
strength to ceramic materials (Sglavo et al., 2000).
322 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324

Table 4
Variation of different membrane parameters after chemical treatment.

Membrane Sintering Porosit Averag Water Flexur

temperat y e pore permeabil al
(μm) (m3 m− 2kPa− 1 s− (MPa)
1
ure size ity
) streng
Membrane 900 °C 0.57 1.91 1.300 × 10− 5 1.08
th
2.926 × 10− 5
A (after 950 °C 0.51 3.03 1.68
treatmen 1000 °C 0.44 3.56 3.485 × 10− 5 2.04
base
Membrane 900 °C 0.60 1.92 1.382 × 10− 5 0.44
t)
3.081 × 10− 5
A (after 950 °C 0.53 3.05 0.92
treatmen 1000 °C 0.44 3.56 3.485 × 10− 5 1.64
acid
Membrane 800 °C 0.55 3.86 5.122 × 10− 5 1.21
t)
5.874 × 10− 5
B (after 900 °C 0.45 4.57 7.17
treatmen 1000 °C 0.43 4.71 5.962 × 10− 5 8.22
base
Membrane 800 °C 0.53 3.84 4.884 × 10− 5 1.05
t)
5.539 × 10− 5
B (after 900 °C 0.43 4.54 6.20
treatmen 1000 °C 0.42 4.68 5.749 × 10− 5 6.55
acid
t)

Table 5
Visual observation of the mixture of cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC)
and potassium dichromate at different CPC/K2Cr2O7 ratios.

Sl. CPC K2Cr2O7 Ratio: Appearance

no. concentrati concentrati CPC/K2Cr2
(mg L− 1) (mg L− 1)
on on O7
01 500 5000 0.1 Floating micelles after 12
02 500 2000 0.25 Floating micelles after 12
h
03 500 1000 0.5 h
Floating micelles after 12
04 500 500 1 h
Floating micelles after 12
05 500 250 2 h
Floating micelles after 5
06 500 175 2.85 min
Turbid
07 1000 200 5 Turbid
08 1000 165 6.06 Partial sedimentation
after
12 h still turbid
09 1500 150 10 Sedimentation after 12 h
10 2000 100 20 Sedimentation after 12 h
11 3000 100 30 Sedimentation after 12 h
12 4000 100 40 Sedimentation after 12 h
13 5000 100 50 Sedimentation after 12 h
14 6000 80 75 No sedimentation
15 7000 70 100 No sedimentation
16 8000 50 160 No sedimentation

water permeability (in %) and porosity were proportional

Fig. 6. Pore size distribution of the membranes at different to the square of changes of pore size, because, both
sintering temperature.
values increased with pore area, assuming the pores are
(a) Membrane A and (b) membrane B.
cylindrical and the thickness of the membrane did not
change during chemical treatment.

3.5. Chemical stability against acid and bases

3.6. Chromate removal

Membranes were chemically resistant (Table 4) and

chemical stability is increased with the higher sintering
temperature. This may be due to the formation of mullite
at a higher sintering temperature and nephiline during
the sintering of membrane B. The reason for the
increasing porosity was due to the fact that, during the
chemical treat- ment, some materials of the membrane
were corroded and generated voids. Average pore size
and permeability also increased. The change of
During the visual observation experiment (Table 5),
flocculation was observed at a lower ratio (up to 2). In a
slightly higher ratio (2 to 5), the solution was appearing
turbid. Eventually, the micelles started to settle down
(ratios from 6 to 50). At ratios from 75 to 160 no
settling was observed even after 12 h.
The flux decreased with time (Fig. 7a). In the first
stage of the experiment the decrease was very fast and
then (after 300 s) a steady

Table 3
Various data for membrane A and membrane B prepared at different sintering temperatures.
Membrane Sintering Average pore Porosity Pore Water Flexural
density
temperature diameter −2
permeability strength
From SEM images From water permeability (m )
(μm) (μm) (m3 m− 2kPa− 1 (MPa)
1.33 × 1011 −6
Membrane 900 °C 2.16 1.84 0.45 9.522
s−1
) × 10 2.54
950 °C 3.42 2.93 0.43 5.00 × 1010 2.307 × 10− 5 3.35
A
1000 °C 3.91 3.48 0.42 3.50 × 1010 3.179 × 10− 5 3.79
Membrane 800 °C 4.08 3.74 0.50 3.60 × 1010 4.371 × 10− 5 1.54
900 °C 4.73 4.41 0.40 3.50 × 1010 4.862 × 10− 5 9.1
B
1000 °C 4.92 4.58 0.38 2.06 × 1010 4.982 × 10− 5 11.55
 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324 323

constant (with ± 10% variation) with respect to time and

also independent of the pressure (Fig. 8a).
Fig. 7. Permeate flux during microfiltration of K2Cr2O7 and CPC Rejection was increased with feed ratios (Fig. 8b). Up
mixture. (a) At a constant CPC/K2Cr2O7 ratio of 1.0 and transmembrane
to the feed ratio of 1.0, the rejection was 100%, at a ratio of
pressures of 69, 104 and 138 kPa during the whole experiment. (b)
For all CPC/K2Cr2O7 ratios at time = 300 s and pressure 104 kPa.
5, 65% and at a ratio of 20, 15.5%. This may be due to the
fact that only the micelles were
removed by the membrane. Thus, at higher ratios (N
10), complete removal of chromate ions can be achieved
by MEMF.

flux was observed. The first phase flux was due to the
membrane fouling and the second stage steady state
decrease was due to concentration polarization.
Another general and obvious ascertainment was that
the flux was higher at higher pressure. The flux was
decreasing with the ratio of surfactant to dichromate
increasing up to 10 but then increased (Fig. 7b). With
increasing feed ratios, flux was reduced due to the
increasing micelle aggregations, and afterwards the flux
was decreased due to a lower number of micelles. For
both CPC and dichromate the rejection % was almost
Fig. 8. Cr(VI) rejection at (a) different transmembrane pressures of 69,
104 and 138 kPa and the fixed ratio of 1.0. (b) Different ratios at a fixed
transmembrane pressure of 104 kPa.

4. Membrane cost

In general, costs of ceramic membranes are ten

times greater than the cost of polymer membranes.
Conventional industrial scale poly- meric membranes
are available for $50–200/m2 (Bhide and Stern, 1991) and
ceramic membranes for $500–2000/m2 (Koros and
Mahajan, 2000). Assuming that the thickness of the
prepared membrane is 5 mm, the cost of the
membrane per square meter is calculated on the basis
of prices of the chemicals from corresponding
companies (Table 6). The

Table 6
Cost analysis of prepared membrane from the unit cost of raw
materials.

⁎Material Cost/m2
% Unit
price($/kg) required/m2 ($)
soil 92 0 (g)
37.48 0
Sodium 4 4.6 1.63 7.50
carbonate
Sodium 2 5.6 0.81 4.56
metasilicate
Boric acid 2 8.4 0.81 6.84
Total 100 – 40.74 18.91
⁎5 cm diameter and 5 mm thick membrane was prepared from total

80 g materials.
324 S. Jana et al. / Applied Clay Science 47 (2010) 317–324

material cost is around $19/m2. Taking the cost of Koros, W.J., Mahajan, R., 2000. Pushing the limits on possibilities for
large scale gas separation: which strategies? J. Membr. Sci. 175,
manufacturing and shipment, the cost may reach up to
181–196.
$100/m2, which is competitive to the cost of the polymer Masmoudia, S., Larbot, A., Feki, H.E., Amara, R.B., 2007. Elaboration and
membranes. characterisation of apatite based mineral supports for
microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes. Ceram. Int. 33, 337–
344.
5. Conclusion Mishra, T., Parida, K., 1997. Transition-metal oxide pillared clays. Part 2. A
comparative study of textural and acidic properties of
manganese(III) pillared montmorillonite and pillared acid-activated
Microfiltration membranes were prepared from
montmorillonite. J. Mater. Chem. 7, 147–152.
locally available clay collected from IIT Guwahati Mohanty, K., Jha, M., Meikap, B.C., Biswas, M.N., 2005. Removal of
campus. The study indicates that with the addition of a chromium (vi) from dilute aqueous solutions by activated carbon
developed from Terminalia arjuna nuts activated with zinc chloride.
small amount of sodium carbonate, sodium
Chem. Eng. Sci. 60, 3049–3059.
metasilicate and boric acid, a high flux ceramic Nandi, B.K., Uppaluri, R., Purkait, M.K., 2008. Preparation and
microfiltration membrane can be prepared and characterization of low cost ceramic membranes for micro-filtration

applied for removal of chromate applications. Appl. Clay Sci. 42, 102–110.
Paton-Morales, P., Talens-Alesson, F.I., 2002. Effect of competitive
adsorption of Zn2+
ions from aqueous solution by micellar flocculation. The
3+
on the flocculation of lauryl sulfate . Langmuir 18, 8295–
micelles by Al 8301.
approximate
Purkait, M.K., Dasgupta, S., De, S., 2004. Resistance in series model
for micellar
cost of the prepared membrane is less than the module
enhanced ultrafiltration of eosin dye. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 270, 496–
cost of polymer membranes. 506.
Purkait, M.K., Dasgupta, S., De, S., 2008. Precipitation of cetyl (hexadecyl)
pyridineum chloride using mono and divalent oxyanions. J. Hazard.
References Mater. 160, 502–507.
Reed, J.S., 1995. Principles of Ceramics Processing. John Wiley & Sons,
NewYork.
Almandoza, M.C., Marchese, J., Prádanos, P., Palacio, L., Hernández, A.,
Rout, T.K., Sengupta, D.K., Kaur, G., Kumar, S., 2006. Enhanced removal of
2004. Preparation and characterization of non-supported micro-
dissolved metal ions in radioactive effluents by flocculation. Int. J.
filtration membranes from alumi- nosilicates. J. Membr. Sci. 241, 95–
Miner. Process. 80, 215–222.
103.
Saffaj, N., Persin, M., Younsi, S.A., Albizane, A., Cretin, M., Larbot, A., 2006.
Bhide, B.D., Stern, S.A., 1991. A new evaluation of membrane processes
Elaboration and characterization of microfiltration and
enrichment of air. II. Effects of economic membrane properties. J.
ultrafiltration membranes deposited on raw support prepared
Membr. Sci. 62, 37–58.
from natural Moroccan clay: application to filtration of solution
Cham, K.K., Brownstein, A.M., 1991. Ceramic membranes growth
containing dyes and salts. Appl. Clay Sci. 31, 110–119.
prospects and opportunities. Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull. 70, 703–707.
Sglavo, V.M., Maurina, S., Conci, A., Salviati, A., Carturan, G., Cocco, G., 2000.
Chesworth, W., 2008. Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Springer.
Das, C., Maity, P., Dasgupta, S., De, S., 2008. Separation of cation–anion Bauxite ‘red mud’ in the ceramic industry. Part 2: production of clay-

mixture using micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration in a mixed micellar based ceramics. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 20, 245–252.

system. Chem. Eng. J. 144, 35–41.
Dean, J.G., Bosqui, F.L., Lanouette, K.H., 1972. Removing heavy metals from
waste water.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 6, 518–522.
DeFriend, K.A., Wiesner, M.R., Barron, A.R., 2003. Alumina and aluminate
ultra-filtration membranes derived from alumina nanoparticles. J.
Membr. Sci. 224, 11–28.
Dong, Y., Liu, X., Ma, Q., Meng, G., 2006. Preparation of cordierite-based
Talens-Alesson, F.I., Anthony, A., Bryce, M., 2006. Removal of phenol
by adsorptive micellar flocculation: multi-stage separation and
integration of wastes for pollution minimization. Colloids Surf., A
Physicochem. Eng. Asp. 276, 8–14.
Ten´orio, J.A.S., Espinosa, D.C.R., 2001. Treatment of chromium plating
process effluents with ion exchange resins. Waste Manage. 21, 637–
642.
Vogel, A.I., 1970. Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry, 385, The

porous ceramic microfiltration membranes using waste fly ash as the English Language Book Society and Longmans, London.

main raw materials. J. Membr. Sci. 285, 173–181. Yoshino, Y., Suzuki, T., Nair, B.N., Taguchi, H., Itoh, N., 2005. Development

Khemakhem, S., Larbot, A., Amar, R.B., 2009. New ceramic microfiltration of tubular substrates, silica based membranes and membrane

membranes from Tunisian natural materials: application for the modules for hydrogen separation at high temperature. J. Membr.
cuttlefish effluents treatment. Ceram. Int. 35, 55–61. Sci. 267, 8–17.