Investigation on the effect of sintering temperature on kaolin hollow fibre membrane for water application

Ceramic membrane has the ability to surpass the utilisation of polymeric membrane in the application that requiring high temperature and pressure condition, as well as harsh chemical environment. Due to the high cost of ceramic membrane, various attempts have been made to use low cost ceramic materials as alternatives to well-known expensive metal oxides. In this work, local Malaysian kaolin has been chosen as ceramic material since it is inexpensive and easily available in Malaysia for the preparation of low cost hollow fibre ceramic membrane. The aim of this work is to study the effect of sintering temperature on the morphology, properties, and performance of kaolin hollow fibre membrane by sintering the prepared precursor at different target temperatures ranging from 1300°C to 1500 °C. The experimental results demonstrated that the kaolin membrane sintered at 1400 °C has influenced the formation of sufficient dense sponge-like structure of skin layer, resulting in good water flux of 74 L/h.m2