Composite ceramic membrane containing titanium carbide as an active layer: Fabrication, characterization and its application in oil/water separation

Treatment of oily wastewater such as the produced water (PW) generated by oil and gas industries remains a pressing challenge. To mitigate this problem, a new ceramic membrane was fabricated for the efficient separation of an oil-in-water emulsion. The key component in this membrane is the titanium carbide (TiC) selective layer which was affixed onto an alumina ceramic support through interfacial polymerization (IP). The merits of the fabricated TiC@Alumina membrane were thoroughly characterized by different techniques and tested for the separation of oil/water (O/W) emulsion. A permeate flux of 591 LMH was achieved at a pressure of 8 bar. The membrane achieved a separation efficiency of > 99 % for all of the tested O/W emulsions (125 ppm, 250 ppm, and 500 ppm). The long-term stability test revealed that the composite membrane maintained excellent separation efficiency (>99 %) for 360 min.