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A B S T R A C TThe ceramic products are extremely interesting in the field of the membrane supports because of their mechanical resistance, chemical inertia, long working life, and thermal stability. This work is mainly focussed on ceramic supports rather than its deposited membranes because it constitutes about 99% of the filter mass. Therefore, replacing the more expensive starting materials (Al 2 O 3 ) by other low cost raw materials (kaolin and calcite) for supports fabrication is significantly important. Consequently, the supports for microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration, and nanofiltration were prepared with local kaolin (DD2) and calcite mixtures. The choice of these raw materials is based on their natural abundance (low price). These supports were made by extrusion technique order to obtain tubular supports which were afterward sintered at 1,150˚C for 2 h. It has been found that supports had interesting characteristics; an average pore size of about 4 μm, a porosity ratio around 50.5%, and a three-point flexural strength ≈28 MPa. Moreover, the pore size distribution was almost mono-modal type. The surface and the cross-section morphologies observed through a scanning electron microscope were also homogeneous and do not present any possible macro defects (cracks, etc.) These supports were selected to be substrates for the membrane layers used in MF.

The supports for microltration (MF) and ultraltration (UF) were prepared with local kaolin (Djebel Debagh: type 3: DD3) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) mixtures. The choice of these materials is based on their natural abundance (low price). In this work, the tubular ceramic supports were prepared by the extrusion method. The sintering was carried out for 2 hours, at temperatures laying between 1150 and 1300 • C. They are then characterized by various techniques: mercury porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diraction. The obtained results revealed that the main phase formed during the sintering step was anorthite with a minor phase of mullite. Moreover, it has been found that supports sintered at temperatures less than 1300• C had interesting characteristics; an average pore size ranged between 3.918.56 µm, a porosity ratio of 42.050.4%, a exural strength ≈6777 MPa and the pore size distribution is bimodal type. According to their average pore sizes, they may be used either as supports for MF or UF membranes.

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