Membrane technologies have broad applications in the removal of contaminants from drinking water and wastewater. In recent decades, ceramic membrane has made rapid progress in industrial/municipal wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment owing to their advantageous properties over conventional polymeric membrane. The beneficial characteristics of ceramic membranes include fouling resistance, high permeability, good recoverability, chemical stability, long life time, contaminant degradation, and self-cleaning, which have found applications with the recent innovations in both fabrication methods and nanotechnology. Therefore, ceramic membranes hold great promise for potential applications in water treatment. This paper mainly reviews the progress in the research and development of ceramic membranes, with key focus on porous ceramic membranes and nanomaterial-functionalized ceramic membranes for nanofiltration or catalysis. The current state of the available ceramic membranes in industry and academia, and their potential advantages, limitations and applications are reviewed. The last section of the review focuses on ceramic membrane fouling and the efforts towards ceramic membrane fouling mitigation. The advances in ceramic membrane technologies have rarely been widely reviewed before, therefore, this review could be served as a guide for the new entrants to the field, as well to the established researchers.

膜技术在去除饮用水和废水中的污染物方面具有广泛的应用。近几十年来，由于其相对于常规聚合物膜的有利性能，其在工业/市政废水处理和饮用水处理中取得了快速的进步。陶瓷膜的有益特性包括抗污性，高渗透性，良好的可恢复性，化学稳定性，长寿命，污染物降解和自洁性，这些都已在制造方法和纳米技术方面的最新创新中得到应用。因此，陶瓷膜在水处理中的潜在应用前景广阔。本文主要回顾了陶瓷膜的研究与开发进展，重点关注用于纳滤或催化的多孔陶瓷膜和纳米材料功能化陶瓷膜。本文对工业和学术界可用的陶瓷膜的现状及其潜在的优势，局限性和应用进行了综述。审查的最后一部分集中在陶瓷膜结垢和减轻陶瓷膜结垢方面的努力。陶瓷膜技术的进步以前很少被广泛地审查过，因此，该综述可以作为该领域的新进入者以及已有研究人员的指南。审查的最后一部分集中在陶瓷膜结垢和减轻陶瓷膜结垢方面的努力。陶瓷膜技术的进步以前很少被广泛地审查过，因此，该综述可以作为该领域的新进入者以及已有研究人员的指南。审查的最后一部分集中在陶瓷膜结垢和减轻陶瓷膜结垢方面的努力。陶瓷膜技术的进步以前很少被广泛地审查过，因此，该综述可以作为该领域的新进入者以及已有研究人员的指南。