Development of Ceramic (Inorganic) Membranes for Oil/Water Separation

This chapter describes the implementation of ceramic (inorganic) membranes for oil/water separation in oily wastewater treatment or hydrocarbon-based wastewater in produced water (PW). Generally, ceramic membranes are fabricated from oxide materials due to their hydrophilic properties to adsorb water and repel oil. Recently, alternative ceramic materials from natural and waste oxides such as kaolin, bauxite, fly-ash and mullites were considered starting materials for ceramic membrane fabrication due to their low cost and abundance, especially in oil/water separation. In membrane technologies, such as the use of microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF), forward and reverse osmosis (FO and RO) have been implemented in many oil/water separations. In fact, with the advance of technologies, the modification of ceramic membranes surface to be used for oily wastewater and hydrocarbon was being made to be applied in membrane technologies such as membrane distillation. Finally, the future developments and challenges are briefly discussed. Throughout this chapter, the use of ceramic membrane technologies for oily wastewater treatment and hydrocarbon separation will be explained, along with the impact of the studies for this application.