Fabrication and characterization of ceramic membranes derived from inexpensive raw material fuller's earth clay

•Abundantly available fuller’s earth clay was used for membrane fabrication.•Impact of sintering temperature on membrane properties was studied.•Membrane sintered at 850 °C was chosen as appropriate membrane.•Manufacturing cost of the membrane estimated as 100 $/m2. The present work discusses the fabrication of novel porous ceramic membranes from inexpensive, abundant, and locally available fuller's earth clay. The raw material and fabricated membranes were comprehensively characterized and discussed their results rationally. The low-cost and flat-shaped membranes were fabricated by the uniaxial dry-pressing method followed by sintering at different temperatures (650–950 °C). The raw material was characterized by XRD, XRF, FESEM-EDX, FTIR, and TG-DTA. Also, the fabricated membranes were subjected to characterization using shrinkage, porosity, chemical stability, flexural strength, FE-SEM, permeate flux, permeability, and pore size. As a result, the average porosity of 39% with a pore size of 0.176 µm was determined for the membrane sintered at 850 °C, which was identified as the most appropriate membrane for microfiltration applications. The chosen sintering temperature 850 °C was relatively much lower than the temperature required for the preparation of commercial ceramic membranes. Furthermore, the membrane's hydraulic permeability was found to be 175 L/m2 h bar. In addition, it has shown excellent chemical resistance with an average weight loss of less than 2% in acidic and basic media. Finally, the manufacturing cost of the prepared ceramic membrane was estimated to be 100 $/m2, which is much lower than the cost of commercial ceramic membranes.