Clay adsorptive membranes for chromium removal from water

Abstract

Cost effective clay adsorptive microfiltration membranes were synthesized to remove Cr (III) from high polluted water. Raw and calcined bentonite were mixed in order to decrease the shrinkage and also increase the porosity; then, 20 wt% of carbonate was added and the samples, named B (without carbonate) and B-Ca20 (with 20 wt% calcium carbonate) were uniaxially pressed and after sufficient drying, fired at 1100 degree(C) for 3 hours. Then, physical and mechanical properties of the samples, their phase analyses and microstructure and also their ability for Cr(III) removal from high polluted water (including 1000 ppm Cr (III) ions) were studied. Results showed that the addition of calcium carbonate lead the porosity to increase to 33.5% while contrary to organic pore formers like starch, due to the formation of wollastonite, the mechanical strength not only didn\'t collapse but also improved to 36.77 MPa. Besides, sample B-Ca20, due to the presence of wollastonite and anorthite, could remove 99.97% of Cr (III) ions. Hence, a very economic and cost effective combination of membrane filtration and adsorption technology was achieved for water treatment which made microfiltration membranes act even better than nanofiltration ones without using any adsorptive nano particles.