Separation of oil from oily wastewater using low cost ceramic membrane

Abstract

Safe disposal of oily wastewater is a global issue across the industrial world. Stable oil-in-water emulsion has been separated by dead end filtration using low cost ceramic membrane. The efficiency of separation at different oil-water emulsion concentrations was evaluated at different trans-membrane pressures. Maximum rejection of oil 95.4% was observed for membrane sintered at 850 °C for oil concentration of 250 mg/L at 137.89 kPa. The permeate oil concentration was within the permissible range of environmental tolerance (<12 mg/L). The flux decline data was compared with various pore blocking models and it was appraised that cake filtration model best represents the fouling mechanism within the experimental range of pressure and oil-in-water concentration. Solvent permeation studies revealed that nonpolar solvents were more permeable than the polar solvents. The selection parameter of 14.78×10−6m3/m2·s indicates a good combination of flux permeation, declination and rejection for the membrane sintered at 900 °C.