Mineral membranes made of sintered clay: application to crossflow microfiltration Original Research Article

New mineral membranes made of sintered clay were performed and characterized in terms of porosity, hydraulic resistance, pore diameter and mechanical resistance. These membranes can be used as microfiltration membranes. The variations of the filtrate flux as a function of time are measured during crossflow microfiltration operations of dilute suspensions of bentonite and talc, for different transmembrane pressure values and mean flow rates. Four membranes of different porosities are tested. Then, we show that the clay membranes can be used in different applications such as water treatment and membrane bioreactor, according to the average pore diameter.