In water treatment applications, the use of ceramic membranes is associated with numerous advantages relative to polymer-based filtration systems. High-temperature stability, fouling resistance, and low maintenance requirements contribute to lower lifecycle costs in such systems. However, the high production costs of most commercially available ceramic membranes, stemming from raw materials and processing, are uneconomical for such systems in most water treatment applications. For this reason, there is a growing demand for new ceramic membranes based on low-cost raw materials and processes. The use of unrefined mineral feedstocks, clays, cement, sands, and ash as the basis for the fabrication of ceramic membranes offers a promising pathway towards the obtainment of effective filtration systems that can be economically implemented in large volumes. The design of effective ceramic filtration membranes based on low-cost raw materials and energy-efficient processes requires a balance of pore structure, mass flow, and robustness, all of which are highly dependent on the composition of materials used, the inclusion of various pore-forming and binding additives, and the thermal treatments to which membranes are subjected. In this review, we present recent developments in materials and processes for the fabrication of low-cost membranes from unrefined raw materials, including clays, zeolites, apatite, waste products, including fly ash and rice husk ash, and cement. We examine multiple aspects of materials design and address the challenges relating to their further development.

Particulate and gaseous air pollutants pose a threat to human health and contribute to climate change. By today, air filters, stationary and portable, are markedly improved and can often provide innocuous air pollution levels. After introducing the classification and standards on air filters, the influence of the processing route and its parameters on the resulting air filter properties and consequently its performance are discussed. Numerous tools are presented to adjust structural properties such as fiber or pore diameter, specific surface area, surface charge, hydrophilicity, or photocatalytic activity to achieve the desired performance in terms of high filtration efficiencies, sufficient mechanical stability, regeneration eligibility, antimicrobial and optical properties. In particular, inorganic and composite materials as well as nonfibrous structures are covered, which are currently holding an outsider position in an air filter community dominated by polymeric materials and fibrous structures.

Background: Recent efforts in fungal biotechnology aim to develop new concepts and technologies that convert renewable plant biomass into innovative biomaterials. Hereby, plant substrates become metabolized by filamentous fungi to transform them into new fungal-based materials. Current research is thus focused on both understanding and optimizing the biology and genetics underlying filamentous fungal growth and on the development of new technologies to produce customized fungal-based materials. Results: This manuscript reports the production of stable pastes, composed of Fomes fomentarius mycelium, alginate and water with 71 wt.% mycelium in the solid content, for additive manufacturing of fungal-based composite materials. After printing complex shapes, such as hollow stars with up to 39 mm in height, a combination of freeze-drying and calcium-crosslinking processes allowed the printed shapes to remain stable even in the presence of water. The printed objects show low bulk densities of 0.12 ± 0.01 g/cm³ with interconnected macropores. Conclusions: This work reports for the first time the application of mycelium obtained from the tinder fungus F. fomentarius for an extrusion-based additive manufacturing approach to fabricate customized light-weight 3D objects. The process holds great promise for developing light-weight, stable, and porous fungal-based materials that could replace expanded polystyrene produced from fossil resources.

Mullite is a promising material for advanced ceramic applications. The synthesis of mullite from oxides requires very high temperatures (T > 1000 °C). Here highly crystalline mullite whiskers with an average length and diameter of 2.37 ± 1.7 μm and 0.18 ± 0.11 μm, respectively, were synthesized by a fluoride-assisted method from aluminium sulfate, aluminium fluoride and fumed silica at a temperature as low as 800 °C.