Effect of activated carbon made from oil palm empty-fruit bunch and iron oxide powder on the performance of ceramic membrane

The high cost of commercial membranes has boosted the search for alternative materials to be used as a substitute to facilitate the practical application of this technology. One of the most promising alternatives to commercial membranes is ceramic clay-based materials. Their low cost, natural availability, and long-term functional robustness make these cost-effective materials feasible for scaled-up systems. In this work, ceramic membranes containing different amounts of activated carbon were made from oil palm empty-fruit bunch (AC-OPEFB) (20, 15, and 10 wt%) and iron oxide powder (2.5 wt%). These membranes were utilised to remove contaminants of Fe, Mn, Zn, NH₃–N, and PO₄. The most favourable rejection percentages for each contaminant in this work are 92.03, 97.08, 99.67, 84.56, and 87.10%. The Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) analysis results show that the membrane surface area has an inverse relationship with AC-OPEFB composition (wt.%) contained in the membrane.