Résumé
There is much current interest in the application of membranes in separation processes because of their potential for the treatment of large quantities of waste water. The focus of this work is to assess the quality of porous membranes prepared from naturally occurring-kaolin clays and to evaluate the performance of tubular ceramic membranes treating integrate draw effluents from sea food industry. The preparation and characterization of porous tubular ceramic membranes, using kaolin powder with corn starch as poreforming agent, were reported. SEM photographs indicated that the membrane surface was homogeneous. The effects of material compositions, additives and the relatively lower sintering temperature, ranging from 1100° to 1250°C, on porosity, average pore size, pore-size distribution and mechanical strength of membranes have been investigated. A correlation between microstructure and mechanical properties of membranes has been discussed. The performance of the novel ceramic membranes obtained was determined by evaluating both the water permeability and rejection.