Elaboration of new tubular ceramic membrane from local Moroccan Perlite for microfiltration process. Application to treatment of industrial wastewaters

In this study, an original microfiltration tubular membrane (M1) made from local Moroccan Perlite was used to treat three wastewater types: effluents coming from beamhouse section of tannery (effluent A), textile effluent coming from jeans washing process (effluent B), and dicing wafer effluent generated by electronic industries (effluent C). The prepared membrane is composed of two layers of Perlite with two different granulometries: a macroporous support with a pore diameter centered near 6.6 μm and porosity of about 42%, and a microfiltration layer, performed by slip casting method, with a mean pore size of 0.27 μm. The water permeability determined of the membrane is 815 L/h m2 bar. Tangential microfiltration using Perlite membrane proved to be effective in removing pollutants from the three effluents with almost the same efficiencies than that obtained with a commercial Alumina membrane (M2) with a pore diameter of 0.2 μm and a water permeability of 1022 L/h m2 bar. Tangential microfiltration process operated at lower pressure (1 bar) was seen to remove turbidity from the three feeds completely. Perlite membrane allowed significant reduction of Chemical Oxygen Demand COD (50–54%) and Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen TKN (56%) of beamhouse effluent. It showed a significant decrease of COD (54–57%) and a complete discoloration of textile wastewater.