Removal of methyl orange from synthetic wastewater using analcime-C, MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 composite membranes

The present study describes the fabrication of analcime-C, MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 composite membranes and their potential in removal of anionic dye from aqueous solution. The hydrothermal crystallisation technique was employed to deposit the charged inorganic oxides such as analcime-C, MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 on the low cost ceramic support. The formation and purity of analcime-C, MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 powders were verified by XRD analysis. The porosity, average pore size and water permeability of analcime-C composite membrane were calculated as 24% (23% and 29% for MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 composite membrane), 0.155 μm (0.173 and 0.970 μm for MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 composite membrane) and 4.53 × 10−8 m3/m2s.kPa (6.05 × 10−8 and 8.23 × 10−6 m3/m2s.kPa for MCM-41 and γ-Al2O3 composite membrane), respectively. To identify the effectiveness of the prepared composite membranes, applied pressure of the filtration process and initial dye concentration was varied to study their influence on the permeate flux and percentage of dye removal. The results showed that the percentage of dye removal is found to be reduced while increasing applied pressure for all the membranes. The maximum percentage of methyl orange removal was exhibited as 67% for analcime-C, 44% for MCM-41 and 56% for γ-Al2O3 membrane.