Abstract
A porous, sintered, and reaction-bonded Si3N4 (SRBSN) planar membrane was prepared by phase-inversion tape-casting, nitridation (at 1350 °C), and sintering (at 1650 °C) of silicon slurry. The membrane was comprised of uniform rod-like β-Si3N4 crystals with a large length/diameter ratio and had high porosity and bending strength. The prepared membrane features a typical asymmetric structure with a skin layer, a sponge layer, and finger-like voids and an average pore size of 0.61 μm. A high permeation flux of 367 L m−2 h−1 and an oil rejection of 88.6% were recorded in oil-in-water emulsion separation experiments. These results suggest that SRBSN membranes have excellent potential for the treatment of oily wastewater.
Highlights
The rapid growth in industrial production, such as that in oil and gas petroleum refineries and the pharmaceutical, metallurgical, fertilizer, and petrochemical industries, has inevitably led to an increase in the generation of oily wastewater in the form of an oil-in-water emulsion, which has a concentration that usually ranges between 50 and 1000 mg/L [1,2]
These results suggest that the heat treatment of since cheap raw material (Si) powder at 600 ◦ C for 5 h improves the fluidity of the suspension
This is ascribed to the surface oxidation of Si particles in the powder occurring during the heat treatment
Summary
The rapid growth in industrial production, such as that in oil and gas petroleum refineries and the pharmaceutical, metallurgical, fertilizer, and petrochemical industries, has inevitably led to an increase in the generation of oily wastewater in the form of an oil-in-water emulsion, which has a concentration that usually ranges between 50 and 1000 mg/L [1,2]. It is almost impossible to separate the oil phase by methods which merely apply gravity [4,5]. Several technologies, such as coagulation, flocculation, air flotation, chemical de-emulsification, ultrasonic separation, and membrane filtration, are often used for oil removal [1,6]. An emerging technology that has attracted increasing attention in the treatment of oily wastewater is the membrane separation process, as it is environmentally friendly, contributes to energy conservation, and displays high separation efficiency [5,7,8]
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