Treatment of food processing industries wastewaters using a new clay-based inorganic membrane: Performance evaluation and fouling analysis

Background: Ceramic membranes are intensely extending their applicability in wastewater treatment due to their excellent resistance to corrosive environment, anti-fouling nature, and longer lifetime. To further widen the usage of ceramic membranes despite of their high cost, development of inexpensive ceramic membranes is highly anticipated. Method: A novel inexpensive Fuller's earth clay ceramic membrane's performance was evaluated in treating the wastewater obtained from two food processing industries, namely the dairy industry and palm oil industry, by varying the applied pressure from 0.35 - 2 bar. Furthermore, the fouling mechanism concerning the micro- filtration of wastewater was identified with the help of Hermia's pore blocking models. Significant Findings: The prepared novel Fuller's earth clay ceramic membrane significantly reduced COD content below the permissible discharge limit (< 200 mg/L) for dairy and palm oil industry wastewaters at a pressure of 0.35 bar. Notably, 98 - 99 % removal of turbidity and suspended solids was achieved. Also, the total phosphorus content was brought down below the permissible discharge limit of 5 mg/L. From fouling analysis, it was inferred that the cake filtration model appropriately fits the obtained experimental results, confirming the anti-fouling nature of the fabricated clay membrane in treating food process industries' wastewater.