CERAMIC MEMBRANES: NEW TRENDS AND PROSPECTS (SHORT REVIEW)

WATER AND WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL NEWS DOI: https://doi.org/10.20535/2218-93002722020208817 ISSN 2218-9300 CERAMIC MEMBRANES: NEW TRENDS AND PROSPECTS (SHORT REVIEW) 1 Alla O. Serhiienko, 1*Tetiana A. Dontsova, 1Olena I. Yanushevska, 1Svitlana V. Nahirniak, 2,3 Hosseini-Bandegharaei Ahmad Department of Inorganic Substances, National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kyiv city, 03056, Ukraine. 2 Department of Environmental health Engineering, Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Sabzevar, Iran. 3 Department of Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Kashmar, PO Box 161, Iran. 1 * Corresponding author: Abstract This review is devoted to the features of the formation and application of ceramic membranes in water treatment technologies. The structure, composition and geometric configuration of ceramic membranes were analyzed. A comparison with polymer membranes was made, as a result of which it was determined that the use of ceramic membranes is safer for the environment and will contribute to the creation of sustainable water treatment technologies, which can be completely closed. Despite their widely recognized shortcomings – fragility and cost, the use of ceramic membranes can pay off quickly due to higher performance and longer service life. Besides, a promising direction in overcoming these shortcomings is the fabrication of cheap and highly functional ceramic membranes using nanotechnology, modification of their surface against biofouling and for disinfection and creation of hybrid membranes. Additionally, the perspective direction of ceramic membranes creation based on low-cost raw materials and the development of cheap anisotropic inorganic membranes is outlined. In general, it is noted that membrane technologies, while eliminating certain shortcomings, will be recognized as a universal and "green" method of wastewater treatment, which will address a wide range of water treatment issues. Key words: ceramic membranes; fouling; membrane processes; membrane technology; wastewater treatment. Introduction Long ago membrane technologies have confidently entered the leading position among modern water treatment technologies due to the possibility of the deep purification degree of water bodies when using them. In addition, membrane processes are widely used in filtration and separation 4 Матеріали та обладнання для водопідготовки WATER AND WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL NEWS DOI: https://doi.org/10.20535/2218-93002722020208817 ISSN 2218-9300 processes in chemical (Yalcinkaya 2020 and Samaei 2018), oil (Aani 2020) food (Aani 2020 and More 2012), pharmaceutical (Aani 2020 and Yang 2018), medical (Aani 2020), environmental (Zhu 2016), textile (Silva 2016 and Aani 2020) industries, etc. Non-standard design, compactness, and portability of membrane installations make their use promising in any remote and hard-to-reach places, in various complex projects with non-classical production scheme geometry. Practically minimized use of chemical reagents in membrane cleaning technologies minimizes sludge and demonstrates their high environmental friendliness with a low degree of secondary environmental pollution. At the same time, membrane technologies are commercially viable, durable, and economically feasible for use in various industrial processes compared to other purification and concentration technologies. According to the literature (Nqombolo 2018), the combination of membrane technologies can be successfully used for the effective treatment of various wastewaters of any enterprise. However, membrane fouling and sensitivity to toxicity are still major drawbacks of membrane technologies. From this point of view, ceramic membranes are more desirable, as they are more resistant to contamination, have high permeability, and nanotechnology usage allows to purposefully change their properties in the desired direction (Li 2020). Also, in comparison with polymer membranes, ceramic membranes have many advantages that allow them to be used in specific technological conditions, and, therefore, they do not replace but complement polymer membranes, which also expand the usage range of membrane technologies (Amin 2016). Ceramic membranes have the following advantages: they can be used in the separation of mixtures and solutions at high temperatures; they are stable in chemically and biologically aggressive environments, various solvents; they can easily be given special properties such as catalytic, hydrophobic-hydrophilic and positive-negative surface charge; they retain their properties up to almost 1000 °C; they can be regenerated by sterilization and calcination, and spent inorganic membranes in contrast to the polymer can be regenerated by burning organic sludge that has penetrated their pores (Buekenhoudt 2008, Ciora 2003, Benfer 2004 and Padaki 2015). However, significant disadvantages of inorganic membranes are their high cost and fragility. To overcome such a shortcoming as fragility, in the literature it is proposed to create composite or hybrid membranes based on ceramic materials. The high cost of ceramic membranes (3-5 times higher than polymer) is partially offset by their higher permeability and service life compared to polymer membranes (Cai 2015, Sondhi 2003, Chougui 2019, Fard 2018 and Lin 2018). Given these shortcomings, researchers are looking for ways to improve ceramic membranes properties while reducing their cost. Modern directions of the development of the ceramic membrane are obtaining nanocomposite or hybrid materials with certain porous characteristics, nanotechnologies application in their production, use of nanosized ceramic materials, the addition of various functional additives such as 5 Materials and equipment for water treatment WATER AND WATER PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL NEWS DOI: https://doi.org/10.20535/2218-93002722020208817 ISSN 2218-9300 graphene oxide, metals or photocatalytically active metal oxides (e.g. zinc and titanium oxides), modification of ceramic surfaces to provide certain hydrophilicity/ hydrophobicity or positive/negative charge (Zielińska 2017, Arzani 2018, Malzbender 2016 and Dontsova 2018, 2019). In this paper, based on modern sources, ceramic membranes, their role in membrane technologies were considered; their structure, composition, and geometric configuration are presented; prospects and progress that can be achieved in the future in the development of ceramic-based membranes were identified. Water membrane technologies There are several requirements for industrial water membrane installations. First, they must be easy in the system installation and maintenance, have a minimum pressure drop in the installation, be highly corrosion-resistant, and with a sufficient margin of mechanical strength. Secondly, the membranes must be characterized by a large working surface, and the liquid must (...truncated)