Fabrication and Evaluation of Ceramic Membranes Using Waste Ceramic Dust and Wood Sawdust: Application for Sluiceway Water Treatment

Ceramic membranes have become one of the most rapidly developing and promising membrane materials due to their excellent properties. So, this study demonstrates the fabrication of ceramic membranes using waste ceramic dust and wood sawdust as sustainable raw materials. The membranes were prepared with dry pressing and sintering processes at temperatures ranging from 900 °C to 1100 °C. Wood sawdust is used as a pore-forming agent to enhance porosity and filtration performance. A comprehensive characterization, including chemical, physical, and microstructural analyses, was conducted to evaluate the membrane properties. These membranes exhibited improvements in water absorption increasing from 24.8% to 32.4% while porosity increased from 40.3% to 47.9%. The mechanical strength of the membranes was maintained within 18-22 MPa, which is suitable for water treatment applications due to the addition of wood sawdust and the variation in sintering temperature. Experimental filtration tests using Al Qasid sluiceway water , Tanta, Gharbia, demonstrated effective turbidity removal efficiencies exceeding 97% with significant improvement in penetration quality, and this confirms the suitability of these membranes for treating surface water. This work highlights the potential of using industrial wastes and biomass for cost-effective, eco-friendly ceramic membranes fabrication, which contributes to sustainable water treatment solutions.