Elaboration and characterisation of low cost ceramic support membrane

A porous tubular ceramic membrane was prepared from low cost Tunisian clay. The characterisation of the raw material and the effect of the sintering temperature on the morphology, pores size distribution and the mechanical properties of the ceramic membrane were studied. A ceramic membrane fired at 1000°C for 1 h presented a mean pore diameter of ∼1·04 μm. The porosity was equal to 38 vol.-%. The filtration of a 0·5 g L−1 bovine serum albumin solution indicated that the limiting flux of permeate was 245 L h−1 m−2 bar−1, which corresponded to a retention rate of about 13%.