Treatment of Industrial Effluents by MF and UF Ceramic Membranes: Comparative Study using Commercial and Elaborated Tunisian Clay Membranes

In the area of waste water treatment, membrane processes are often used in combination with other processes to treat very complex effluents which have often an important load of organic substances and salt. The membrane process would enhance the water treaded quality in order to water reuse [1]. Membrane can be in polymer or in inorganic material. Ceramic membranes have several advantages compared with polymeric membrane notably in term of mechanical strength and chemical and thermal resistances [2-4]. In addition, the amphoteric properties of ceramic surfaces permits in the area of desalination to assure selectivity of permeation and to produce water with a great performances compared to that resulted from reverse osmosis [5,6]. However, the use of ceramic membranes in the waste water treatment is limited by the cost of membranes which is often 5 to 10 times higher than that of organic membranes. Consequently, a great deal of research has been devoted in recent years to the developement of new types of inorganic membranes witch include zeolites [7], carbon [8] dense metals [9] and porous ceramic oxides [10]. The preparation of ceramic membranes from raw materials like clay and apatite is a novel approach witch has received only limited attention in the literature [4-11]. These materials are generally abundant (located throughout the world) and of a very low cost.