Chapter seven - SiC porous membranes. How possible could be the production of high selective porous SiC membranes?

Abstract

Porous silicon carbide (SiC) membranes are attractive separation devices in owing to their outstanding chemical, thermal, and mechanical robustness. The market currently offers microfiltration and ultrafiltration SiC membranes in form of flat sheet, disk, and multichannel modules. Nevertheless, over the past years, an array of approaches has been proposed to reduce the production costs of SiC membranes and extend their range of applications to nanofiltration and gas separation. Among the strategies for high selective porous SiC membranes are the coating of mixed fine and coarse powders, the use of sintering additives, and the pyrolysis of polymer precursors. Moreover, hollow fiber SiC membranes combine high water productivity and high filtering area density. By lowering the sintering temperatures and reducing the number of fabrication steps, the current research has been simultaneously enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of SiC membranes.