Fabrication and characterization of a ceramic membrane from clay and banana peel powder: Application to industrial wastewater treatment

Herein, we report the fabrication of a clay-based ceramic membrane. The corresponding support was prepared by a solid-state method using a clay/banana peels (BP, natural porogen) mixture followed by sintering for 2 hat 1100 degrees C, and the raw materials were characterized by a range of instrumental characterization techniques. In particular, the influence of BP content on the support properties such as porosity and mechanical strength was examined, and an increase in BP content from 5 to 20 wt% was shown to result in increased support porosity and decreased mechanical strength. The microfiltration membrane was prepared by spin-coating the support with a suspension of clay powder (< 2 mu m) followed by sintering at 1000 degrees C and exhibited a homogenous crack-free structure with a mean pore size and water permeability of 0.45 mu m and 550 L h(-1) M-2 bar(-1), respectively. The fabricated membrane was applied to the tangential filtration of industrial wastewater, achieving high turbidity retention (99%), high residual dye rejection (96.7%), and efficient reduction of chemical oxygen demand (< 85.72%).