Research Projects

The demand for clean water has become an important issue in India and worldwide due to increasing water pollution. Since, India is one of the top agriculture producers in the world, the demand of clean water for land and crops are absolute necessary. Presence of the variety of contaminants in the raw water, traditional technique used for the irrigation, lack of advancement in the field of water filtration etc. is the primary reason for the clean water deficit. Recent advances in nanotechnology have expanded the range of applications to membrane technologies to improve their synergistic effects on water and wastewater treatment. In this regard, ceramic membranes could be a potent solution to this issue due to their better chemical, thermal and mechanical stability as well as resistance to microbial degradation. Although, few attempts were made to fabricate ceramic membranes, it lacked proper optimization of the process. Apart from this, other drawback such as high manufacturing cost, complex processing and higher operating cost limited the use of ceramic membrane in a much smaller market compared to polymeric membrane. Therefore, this project seeks to identify the problem and develop a robust and low-cost recipe to fabricate near net shape membrane for water filtration, which could be beneficial not only for the agriculture, industries but would also benefit the societal needs in India as well as worldwide. In this regard, IIT Patna will be partnering with Carborundum Universal Limited (CUMI), a world renowned manufacturer of ceramics powders and components. The expertise of IIT Patna on the fundamental science of coatings along with the component application know-how of CUMI team will help in accelerating the market readiness of the plasma sprayed ceramic membrane. Five different coatings of Al?O?, ZrO?, SiO?, TiO? and TiO?-Ag, will be optimized using atmospheric plasma spray (APS) technique to meet the desired properties and match the microstructural requirements for high performance ceramic membranes. The coatings will be deposited over aluminum/graphite substrates of required shapes. Free standing membranes will then be generated by dissolving the substrates in a proper organic solution. The ceramic membranes will be characterized for the porosity using Pycnometer and the pore size using gray scale Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images. The efficiency of the ceramic membranes will be evaluated using dead-end filtration test, in which the clean water flux and the rejection rate of the contaminants will be investigated. The ceramics membranes will also be subjected to thermal shock, thermal expansion and mechanical test to determine their longevity in practical applications. Upon the successful completion of this project, it is anticipated that low cost ceramic membrane having the optimized clean water flux and rejection rate will be available for its potential use in various sectors including agriculture in India.

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Experimental matrix for fabricating the membrane has been frozen. All the powders for fabricating the membrane has been procured and powder has been characterised for its phase analysis, flowability and its morphology. For characterizing the dead end filtration test and water rejection rate of the fabricated membrane, customised equipment from Cleansap Mumbai has been installed in our lab. This is the heart of the project which will dictate the efficiency of the fabricated membrane. Porous substrate from the outside membrane has been procured.

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Carborundum Universal Limited, Electromineral Division, (Murugappa Group), Ernakulam