This paper presents a method that is capable of predicting pore structure of coal-based microfiltration carbon membranes. The tubular carbon membranes are prepared from coal samples with different particle size and distribution by using the extrusion method. According to the relationship between properties of coal samples (particle size and distribution) and pore structure parameters of coal-based carbon membranes, the experiential equations of average pore size and porosity are concluded, and the change law of pore size distribution curve is also summarized. The results show pore structure properties of coal-based carbon membranes can be exactly predicted for different separation requirements by adjusting coal particle size and distribution, which allows us to minimize cost and time consuming experiments in the development of coal-based microfiltration membranes.prediction, pore structure, microfiltration, carbon membrane, coal Citation:Song C W, Wang T H, Qiu J S. Pore structure prediction of coal-based microfiltration carbon membranes.Membrane processes have been applied in various types of industries such as separation, concentration and purification in food technology, biotechnology and petrochemical processes. Carbon membranes are promising membrane separation materials because of high separation efficient, thermal stability and chemical stability [1,2]. Although carbon membranes have demonstrated more advantages in separation area than other membrane materials, up to now, the applications of carbon membranes still mainly focus on gas separation because of high cost and complicated preparation technology [3,4]. In previous paper, we described novel carbon membranes used for microfiltration. The carbon membranes are prepared from coal, a cheap carbonaceous source with abundant deposit in China, which has attracted much attention because of low cost and simple preparation technology in the past several years [5,6]. However, the potential of porous coal-based microfiltration carbon membranes have not been fully realized because of some unsolved problems, for example, their pore structure cannot be easily predicted for different separation requirements. As a matter of fact, this problem is extremely important for other porous membrane materials [7,8]. Therefore, we make great effort to study how to predict the pore structure of coalbased carbon membranes. In our works, we find that the pore structure of coal-based carbon membrane is formed by the evolution of binder and volatile in coal, and the most important controlling factors are particle size and its distribution of coal samples in the preparation of coal-based carbon membranes. Therefore, we try to correlate the pore structure properties of coal-based carbon membranes with the particle size and its distribution of coal samples, and further provide a new method for the prediction of pore structure of coal-based microfiltration carbon membranes. The paper mainly describes preliminary research work from this point of view. According to a large amount of expe...