Exploitable results Nanofiltration mineral membranes for cane sugar refining process Sol-gel processing has been used to fabricate zirconia nanofiltration membranes for application in sugar refining. 2 routes were investigated: aqueous processing by AEA (Sol-Gel 2) and alcohol processing by Tech-Sep (sol-Gel 1). Light scattering was used for particle size determination in zirconia sols that were converted to gel and oxide powders. The latter were characterized for pore size distribution, surface area and crystalline phase to give information on the possible pore size distribution in membranes made from similar sols. Selected sols were converted to oxide coatings on 7-channel and 19-channel Kerasep ultrafiltration supports, 2 cm in diameter with lengths up to 85.6 cm; the most frequently used supports had a 15 KD molecular weight cut-off. Laboratory-scale trials on model solutes (bromocresol green, vitamin B12, sodium chloride, sucrose and a dextran with a molecular weight of 10000) showed that the zirconia coatings behaved as nanofiltration membranes. Pilot-plant trials were made on 85.6 cm lengths for sodium chloride recovery from ion-exchange effluent produced in a refinery. Impurities to be removed by nanofiltration were characterized. Pilot plant trials showed that sol-gel, zirconia membranes could recover brines from ion-exchange effluent with targeted specification for flux and colours rejection. For meltor liquor, ceramic membranes do not fit the flux objectives in spite of good results of decolourization. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
