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The first ceramic membranes for liquid separation were tubular. These were single or multichannel cylinders of ceramic with a membrane made of the same raw material in a different structure on the inner surface. Tubular ceramic membranes are still used for many industrial applications, but they are not feasible for use in relatively large-scale drinking water or wastewater facilities because of...

Microfiltration and ultrafiltration polymeric membranes were first installed in large-scale municipal drinking water facilities in the 1990s, driven by the need for utilities to provide absolute barriers against suspended solids and microorganisms — particularly chlorine-resistant Cryptosporidium and Giardia — in the drinking water supply.

Over the last decade, several ceramic membrane suppliers have entered the market. They aggressively began to pursue municipal water projects based on the technical and economic competitive advantages of advanced flat sheet, monolith, and segmented monolith ceramic membranes over polymeric membranes. The manufacturers promote the following as distinct competitive advantages when using ceramic...

Installations of ceramic membranes have dramatically increased during the past 6 years. In fact, total installed capacity of ceramic membranes for drinking water now exceeds 2.2 million m3/d (500 mgd). While this is a fraction of the total installed capacity of polymeric membranes today, market share for ceramic membranes is increasing rapidly, including both greenfield and retrofit...

While most of the facilities employing ceramic membranes have been greenfield facilities, Nanostone Water (Waltham, Massachusetts) has focused on retrofitting struggling polymeric membrane facilities. Over 2 years, Nanostone Water completed four drinking water facility retrofits in the U.S., using as much of the existing infrastructure as possible.

The technical advantages of ceramic membranes have long been recognized in a variety of water treatment conditions. They continue to gain traction in the marketplace because — among other things — they meet the need of utilities relying more on difficult feed water sources.