Up-to-now, the employment of ceramic membranes becomes unviable in a great number of applications, such as municipal wastewater treatment, due to the high economic costs that they imply. Therefore, this is the reason why this system is not widely implanted in the sector. Ceramic membranes present noteworthy benefits that make them particularly appropriate for their application in MBR systems. The main advantages of ceramic membranes are their better chemical, thermal and mechanical properties, which make possible to operate them under severe conditions and also to apply harsh cleaning procedures (high temperature and strong cleaning reagents). The ceramic membranes functionality in the filtration treatments is based on its high permeability and reduced pore size. This is usually achieved by the combination of a porous support and a selective layer with a reduced thickness and small pore size. High permeability supports are normally obtained by the addition of pore formers, materials that are oxidized or decomposed during the sintering step, generating the required support porosity. The most widely used pore former in low cost ceramic membranes are starches from different sources. Nevertheless, different waste products, such as orujillo, paper industry wastes or almond shell have been employed as pore formers.
The utilization of industrial or agroindustrial wastes as pore formers had not been applied previously in the manufacture of ceramic membranes. In addition, until now, no other types of wastes, such as marble dust or chamotte, have been included in the composition. These materials are not pore formers, but can be introduced in the ceramic membranes composition, to provide calcium oxide (marble dust) or to improve the extrusion performance. REMEB has developed this double approach, including both kinds of wastes to reduce the cost of the membranes.
Concerning the impact of the developed solution, it can be mentioned the economic impact, related to the exploitation potential and the good commercial prospects of the technology. Although the specific business plan will be developed during the second part of the project, it has been already perceived a great interest from the industry in the progress of the project and the future replication actions to be performed. With this regard, a specific action plan is being defined within WP5 and WP6 in order to define these aspects. The future exploitation actions will provide new market opportunities and jobs and will contribute to position Europe as global leader in water technologies. Regarding the environmental and societal aspects, the introduction of this kind of technology will foster the concepts of circular economy by reusing different kind of wastes for the membrane manufacturing and increasing the possibilities to enhance the water effluent quality in WWTPs. The MBR will bring new opportunities and possibilities to reuse the effluent. All these aspects will be very positive for the water sector and, also, for the final users.
