In recent years, ceramic membranes have been applied as emulsification media in preparing emulsified heavy oils for residue fluid catalytic cracking units. In this case, silicon carbide (SiC) material is used for harsh environments due to its excellent chemical and thermal stabilities. Herein, the SiC emulsified functional membrane was prepared by using an in-situ sintering method to adjust the membrane pore structure. The open porosity of these membranes can be controlled from 26% to 48%. The decrease of open porosity improved the bending strength of the membrane and also affected the emulsification performance. Moreover, the surface wettability of the membrane was changed by a grafting modification method. After modification, the pore structure of the hydrophobic SiC membrane had no obvious change, and the water contact angle of the membranes under oil was approximately 170° that showed excellent superhydrophobic under oil.<br/>In this study, the size of water droplets decreased from 1.16 μm to 0.98 μm as the open porosity decreased from 48% to 26%, and the influence of open porosity played a more significant role than the membrane pore size when the two factors worked simultaneously. In contrast, the resulting water-in-oil emulsion droplet size changed from 2~3 μm to 1.5 μm when the membrane surface changed from hydrophilic to hydrophobic, and the droplet size distribution of the emulsion prepared with the hydrophobic membrane became narrowed. In addition, the hydrophobic SiC membranes exhibited high flux and stability during the preparation of water-in-oil emulsions, and fouled membranes can be conveniently and effectively regenerated by ultrasonic cleaning with ethanol. Hence, the SiC membranes produced water-in-oil emulsions with small droplets in harsh environments, such as the emulsification of heavy oil and high-viscosity oil at high temperature.

Pore structure and surface property design of silicon carbide membrane for water-in-oil emulsification

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