Ceramic membranes from Moroccan natural clay and phosphate for industrial water treatment

Ceramic MF membranes have been made from clays and phosphates, coming from Moroccan ores. Several flat disk filters have been obtained by sintering the mixed materials with starch as organic additive. The resulting filters have been characterized by using mercury porosimetry, air and water permeation, to choose the best fabrication parameters. Resulting optimized membranes have been used to treat dye containing solutions to check the utility of such filters in the waste water treatment for Moroccan textile industry. Results are quite promising, allowing these filters to be used as a previous clarification step in textile water treatment.