Recent progress and technical improvement strategies for mitigating ceramic membrane bottlenecks in water purification processes: a review.

Abstract

Ceramic membranes offer considerable promise for future industrial applications due to their superior chemical, mechanical, and thermal stabilities, resistance to harsh operating conditions, and long-term operating processes. However, several bottlenecks still limit their commercial scale-up in filtration and separation applications, including brittleness, the high costs of conventional ceramic materials, and fouling. Despite several articles in the literature on ceramic membranes, this review focuses on recent progress, technical strategies, and methods to mitigate these limitations that significantly impact their separation and filtration performance. The use of alternative naturally occurring ceramic materials to mitigate the high costs of conventional ceramic materials is discussed, as well as strategies to improve the mechanical strength of brittle ceramic membranes by increasing sintering temperatures and using support materials. Additionally, advanced techniques to mitigate fouling accumulation and wetting in the pores and on the ceramic membrane surface, such as increasing membrane hydrophilicity and surface modification, are addressed. Despite progress in technical solutions for mitigating the bottlenecks of ceramic membranes, these limitations persist. Therefore, the present limitations and future research directions are highlighted.