Synthesis of Ceramic Membranes and Their Application in Wastewater Treatment and Emerging Contaminants Removal

Abstract

Due to its many advantages over other conventional treatment processes, membrane technology has been successfully used in wastewater treatment and desalination. Smaller footprint, higher efficiency, ease of operation & lower chemical consumption with optimum output are some of the inherent benefits of membrane-based treatment processes. However, some challenges associated with membrane technology, such as selectivity-permeability trade-off, fouling, specificity for uncharged contaminants in pressure-driven membranes, and energy consumption, led the scientific community to look for some improvements in membrane systems. These necessitate a new generation membrane with better selectivity & antifouling capability. Membrane technologies have broad applications in the removal of contaminants from drinking water and wastewater. The ceramic membrane has made rapid progress in industrial/municipal wastewater as well as drinking water treatment owing to its advantageous properties over the conventional polymeric membrane in recent decades. The beneficial characteristics of ceramic membranes include fouling resistance, high permeability, good recoverability, chemical stability, long shelf life, and self-cleaning properties and contaminants degradations which have found applications with the recent innovations in both fabrication methods and nanotechnology. Therefore, ceramic membranes hold great promise for potential applications in water treatment. Porous ceramic membranes have gained a commercial foothold in microfiltration (MF) & ultrafiltration (UF) applications in wastewater treatment. Ceramic-based membranes are promising and will soon become key players in water technology. This chapter mainly highlights the research and progress of fabrication methods to synthesize ceramic membranes. Furthermore, wastewater treatment applications of ceramic membranes, including oily wastewater treatment, heavy metal ion removal, industrial wastewater treatment, bacteria and viruses removal, and removal of emerging contaminants from wastewater are presented. Finally, future scope and challenges for further improving low-cost ceramic membranes are also emphasized in this chapter.