The membrane separation processes present several advantages in relation to the traditional process, such as high selectivity, easy operation, good results in the effluent treatments, low energy consumption, small number of processing step, can be applied to thermo sensible substances, easy to combine with other process and scale up, great efficiency in the final product (PORTER, 1990; CAMPOS, 2000). The materials employed in the membrane preparation can be metals, ceramic, polymer or composites.
ndustrial wastes recycling become attractive due to raw materials economy (sustainability) and environmental issues. This research objective was to characterize a residue generated during the alumina calcination process (electrostatic precipitator dust), to be applied on the development of tubular ceramic membranes. In this context, two samples were analyzed, a crude residue (sample A) as supplied by the industry and other calcined residue (sample B). As verified by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy by dispersive energy (XDE), the samples A and B showed a high content of alumina in chemical compositions, both close to 96%. Gibbsite and α-alumina crystalline phases were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) in the samples. At scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, could be observed agglomerates of particles with asymmetric shapes and a wide particle size distribution like was confirmed by laser diffraction, which showed that the particles diameters remained almost unchanged after calcination at 700°C. Results revealed no significant differences between samples characteristics, indicating that the crude and calcined residues could be used to prepare ceramic membranes.
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