Development of Ceramic Candle Filters by Slip Casting Process

Abstract:

A well-defined porous ceramic having effective pore size less than 1 µm was fabricated by slip casting technique which provides a low-cost and single-stage filtration process. This single-stage filtration process removed suspended solids and pathogenic organism. In this study, diatomaceous earth was used as pore forming agent in clay based ceramic body. Varied amount of diatomaceous earth was used with fixed proportion of china clay, ball clay and lime stone. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) was used to determine the composition of raw materials and final sintered filter body. In terms of porosity and flow rate, 25% diatomaceous earth shows better filtration property. It was found that total porosity increased with decreasing milling time. As the firing temperature increased, porosity decreased rapidly after 1100 °C. However, the change of porosity in firing range of 1000 °C–1100 °C was found very small. Mercury intrusion porosimetry was used to measure the pore size and its distribution. An effective intra-particle pores in a range of 0.2-0.5 μm was identified. Inter- and intra-particle pores were observed using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Microbial removalefficiency of 99.99% was measured, while water flow rate was found in a range of 200-700 ml/hour.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 608)
• Pages: 85-90
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.608.85
• Online since: April 2014
• Authors: Md. Fakhrul Islam*, Mehedi Hasan Rizvi, Towkir Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Hasanuzzaman
• Keywords: Bimodal Characteristic Curves, Diatomaceous Earth, Macroporosity, Water Filtration

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