Preparation and Application in Crude Oil-Water Separation of Clay-Based Membranes

Abstract

In this study, tubular ceramic membranes were prepared from a mixture of ball clay, talc and alumina. The mixture was characterized by the following techniques: particle size analysis, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal analysis. Tubular membranes were produced by extrusion process and thermal treated at temperatures between 1025 °C and 1175 °C. The membranes were characterized by XRD, linear shrinkage, apparent porosity, flexural strength, mercury porosimetry, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and contact angle. To evaluate the efficiency of the membranes, permeability tests with distilled water and oil-in-water emulsion were conducted in a tangential flow system. The results showed that the sintering of the specimens promoted the formation of α-cordierite phase and directly influenced the physical and mechanical properties such as linear shrinkage, porosity and flexural strength. Separation tests revealed that these membranes promoted high oil-water separation efficiency with values above 99.0%.