Sustainable fabrication of low-cost ceramic microfiltration membranes derived from Fuller’s earth clay and sugarcane bagasse ash

This work discusses the sustainable approach to fabricating clay-based ceramic membranes by exploring and integrating low-cost, locally abundant raw materials, such as fuller’s earth clay (FEC) and sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA). These raw materials were systematically characterized using XRD, XRF, SEM-EDX, PSD, FTIR, and TG-DTA. The uniaxial dry-pressing method is used to fabricate membranes with 100% FEC as M1, 95% FEC and 5% SBA as M2, and 90% FEC and 10% SBA as M3, followed by sintering at 850 °C. Furthermore, the fabricated membranes are characterized by physical properties such as shrinkage, porosity, chemical stability, permeability, and pore size, as well as by essential spectroscopic and microscopic analyses. A reduction in shrinkage (13.5–9.4%), an increase in porosity (36.5% to 39.1%), and good resistance to acidic (2.22–2.77%) and basic conditions (0.54–0.7%) were observed in fabricated membranes. The membrane morphology was highly porous, with pore sizes ranging from 0.365 to 0.85 µm, indicating potential suitability for microfiltration applications. The cost estimate indicated that membranes fabricated using FEC and SBA can cost as little as $54/m 2 , substantially lower than those of commercially available membranes.