Properties and Filtration Performance of Porous Clay Membrane Produced Using Sawdust as Pore Forming Agent

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of sawdust at 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 wt% towards physical properties and filtration efficiency of porous clay membrane. Sawdust in various quantities was added into water containing clay, polyethylene glycol and sodium silicate and then stirred to form homogenized slurry. The slurry then was casted into Plaster of Paris (PoP) mould. The green body was cut into required sizes, dried and sintered in furnace at 1000 °C. The porosity and density of porous clay was determined by Archimedes principle, while morphology was observed by Hitachi Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope (TTSEM). The filtration test was examined on a dead-end filtration setup in batch mode operation using nitrogen as carrier gas. Distilled water was filtered and used to determine membrane permeability, while aquaculture wastewater filtration was used to determine the turbidity removal. Turbidity of aquaculture wastewater and effluent (after filtration) were measured using turbidity meter. The results indicated that porosity increased from 38 % to 64 %, while density decreased from 1.5 g/cm3 to 0.8 g/cm3 with increasing amount of sawdust from 0 to 40 wt%. This data was supported by TTSEM which is indicate that the amount of pores increased with increasing amount of sawdust. Permeation of membrane increased from 45289 to 143999 L.h-1.m-2.bar-1 and efficiency of turbidity removal increased from 87 % to 89 % with increasing amount of sawdust from 0 to 40 wt%. As conclusion, 30 wt% was an optimum amount of sawdust which is produced ceramic membrane with good structure integrity, porosity, high permeability and high turbidity removal.