Preparation of low-cost peridotite ceramic microfiltration membrane for treating industrial wastewater

The aim of this work is to fabricate a low-cost ceramic microfiltration (MF) membrane made from a new geomaterial named peridotite. The membrane was prepared by uniaxial pressing and followed by sintering. The effect of sintering temperature, in the range of 1100–1225°C, on the permeability, porosity, mechanical strength, and pore size was investigated. The optimized MF membrane sintered at 1200°C exhibits 1198.9 L h⁻¹ m⁻² bar⁻¹ of permeability, 36.41% of porosity, 12.9 MPa of mechanical strength, and 1.56 µm of pore size. The prepared membrane was used for the MF treatment of dairy wastewater. It was found that the membrane is able to remove 88.56% and 69.54% of turbidity and chemical oxygen demand, respectively. Furthermore, the cost of the peridotite membrane was estimated to be $10.3 m⁻².