This work is devoted to the study of ceramic membranes elaborated from mineral oxides. The mesoporous silica layer was prepared by the sol-gel method using a SiO2 sol. The silica membranes were obtained by slip casting silica solution on a clay tubular support, followed by drying and sintering at 600 degrees C during 2 h. The effect of various contact times on the layer thickness and the pore diameters was investigated. Two membranes M1 and M2 were obtained having 12.5 and 27 mu m thickness respectively. Their pore diameters were centred at 2.5 nm for M1 and 1.5 nm for M2. The performances of the two membranes were compared in terms of water flux, permeate flux, retention rate of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the resistance of fouling. Results indicated that the water permeability was 77.3 L/h m(2)bar for M1 and 34.56 L/h m(2)bar for M2. The BSA retentions for M1 and M2 were 78.33% and 98.64% respectively. For M2, the irreversible fouling resistance represented a little contribution of the total resistance (17.53%), while for M1, there was high contribution (84.34%). The effect of pH of BSA by filtration M1 membrane has been examined. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.