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Effect of Sintering Temperature on Natural Ceramic Membrane for
Aquaculture Effluent Treatment
Lim Shey Thing
Supervisor: Dr. Asmadi Bin Ali @ Mahmud
Bachelor of Technology (Environment)
School of Ocean Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
Nowadays, amount of aquaculture wastewater produced in Malaysia is increasing due
to the development of aquaculture. Membrane technology is used to improve the
quality of aquaculture effluent produced. However, the membrane characteristics will
affect the effectiveness of the membrane in removing the contaminants. Therefore,
the aim of this study is to determine the effect of sintering temperature on natural
ceramic membrane in terms of porosity, density, mechanical strength, water
permeability flux and morphology. The increase in sintering temperature (800°C -
1100°C) has reduced the porosity (47.13% - 40.66%) but increased the density (0.89
-1.06) and mechanical strength (19.99MPa – 23.37MPa) of ceramic membrane
respectively. The SEM results shown that the ceramic membranes formed were defect
free. The increment of pore size affected the water permeability flux of the ceramic
membranes and increase from range 772L/h.m 2 to 14750L/h.m 2 . The water
permeability flux of the ceramic membranes are directly proportional to filtration
pressure applied. All the ceramic membranes were applied in aquaculture effluent
treatment and the best ceramic membrane was produced at 1000°C sintering
temperature with the removal of total suspended solids (98.91%) and turbidity
(94.24%).
38 | U M T U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H D A Y 2019