Preparation and application in oil-water separation of ZrO₂/α-Al₂O₃ MF membrane

The composite tubular membranes were prepared by applying suspensions of zirconia particles to form separation top-layers on two different porous α-alumina supports and heating the coated supports to partly sinter the particles of top-layers. The conditions of synthesizing the ZrO₂/α-Al₂O₃ membranes were investigated systematically. The mean pore diameter of zirconia membrane was about 0.2 μm by gas bubble pressure method, and the pure water flux was about 400 and 15001/ (m² h bar) for ZrO₂ membrane on symmetric and asymmetric Al₂O₃ support, respectively. Zirconia membrane and three different alumina membranes were applied to separate oil-water emulsion obtained from steelworks to evaluate the permeability and separation characteristics, the ZrO₂/α-Al₂O₃ MF membrane in this work was the preferred membrane.