Influence of starch content on the properties of low cost microfiltration membranes

This study is related to the development of low cost microfiltration (MF) membranes using cheap raw materials, namely clay and corn starch. Flat MF membranes were prepared by uniaxial dry pressing and sintered at firing temperature of 950 °C. Microstructure, porosity, permeability, shrinkage and flexural strength of the elaborated MF membranes were studied as function of corn starch content (0–20 wt.%). The experimental results indicated that the porosity and permeability of MF membranes increased with the increasing of corn starch content. However the flexural strength reduced from 16.3 to 10 MPa with the increasing of corn starch content from 0 to 20 wt.%. Moreover the addition of corn starch had no significant effect on the linear shrinkage. Elaborated MF membranes were used to treat wastewater from textile industry. The filtration results showed that the turbidity retention decreased with the increasing of corn starch content and all the turbidity retention values were greater than 80%. MF membranes with a satisfied porosity, permeability and mechanical strength were elaborated with the addition of 10 wt.% of corn starch.