Preparation and optimization of eco-friendly inorganic geopolymer membrane

Abstract

The most common and widely used technique for water and wastewater treatment is membrane separation. This research was applied to fabricate an eco-friendly, low-cost, and sustainable geopolymer membrane that can be used in water treatment. A geopolymer membrane is fabricated using fired clay brick waste, the effect of several variables on the apparent porosity, compressive strength of the membrane, iron and manganese rejection was studied using response surface methodology, the studied variables are zeolite addition in the range of 0–25% by weight, curing temperature at the range from 50 to 90 °C and curing time ranging from 1 to 3 days. According to experimental results, the optimum membrane is prepared using only fired clay brick waste, cured at 70 °C for 1 day. Long-term performance test and fouling test were performed to ensure membrane durability, thus the flux recovery ratio was 97.94%, while the total fouling ratio was 3.66%, of which 1.6% was reversible. These membranes were further characterized through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and pore size distribution, and the results confirmed that the membrane had micropores with an average pore diameter of 0.1212 µm. The optimum membrane was used in a real water application and the manganese and iron rejection reached 99.8% and 90% respectively.

Bibliographic Information