Patent ID: 7608298

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a ceramic porous membrane on one or more inner wall surfaces of a porous base member, the method comprising the steps of: providing a porous base member having a substantially cylindrical outer shape and having one or more through holes formed therein passing from a first end of the porous base member to an opposed second end of the porous base member in a longitudinal axis direction of the porous base member; orienting the porous base member in a vertical direction so that one of the first and second ends thereof defines a lower base surface and so that the longitudinal axis of the porous base member and the through holes thereof extend in the vertical direction; supplying, to inner wall surfaces of the one or more through holes of the porous base member, a ceramic sol liquid, wherein a temperature differential between the ceramic sol liquid and the porous base member is 50° C. or less; stopping the liquid supply at a stage when the ceramic sol liquid entirely covers the inner wall surfaces of the one or more through holes of the porous base member and discharging the ceramic sol liquid from the one of the first and second ends defining the base surface of the porous base member; and creating a pressure differential, only after the ceramic liquid sol is completely discharged from the porous base member, so that a pressure measured at an outer peripheral surface of the porous base member is lower than a pressure measured inside the one or more through holes of the porous base member.