Effect of polymer addition to membrane phase to improve the stability of emulsion liquid membrane for phenol pertraction

This study is conducted to indicate the importance of emulsion stability in the pertraction operation. Emulsion liquid membrane is stabilized by the addition of a rubbery polymer and dispersed in an external phase containing phenol. Moreover, various parameters such as temperature, intensity of mixing, internal phase concentration, phase ratio, and pH of external phase due to their effect on emulsion stability were studied. Emulsion stability with a specified formulation of primary emulsion without polymer was found in about 5-10min, but results showed that the addition of the polymer increased the emulsion stability time at least for 35min. In general, the results showed that by increasing the volume ratio of phases (R-ew), internal-phase concentration, and decreasing feed pH, the extraction efficiency increases. It was found that under optimum conditions, more than 85% of phenol presented in a feed solution containing 100ppm phenol was removed within only 35min in a single-stage operation.