Liquid emulsion membrane, development

Table 31.3 gives a few typical examples on recovery of actinides by ELM. Myriad literature reports exist on the use of HDEHP for metal extraction involve ELMs. Comparative studies between column and batch liquid emulsion membrane techniques based on HDEHP/HCl system were carried out to develop a system for the isolation of Th from natural uranium, which showed that, kineticaUy, the equilibrium for thorium separation using batch technique is faster than the continuous column system [37]. The effective separation of Th from natural uranium was found to be independent of time. El-Sherif studied... 

Since they were first developed in 1967 (1 ), liquid emulsion membranes (LEMs) have been used in a variety of separations (see reviews by Frankenfeld and Li (2), Marr and Kopp (3), and Way e t al. (4)). Conceptually, LEMs are quite simple. They consist of an... 

A form of liquid membrane that received a great deal of attention in the 1970s and 1980s was the bubble or emulsion membrane, first developed by Li at Exxon [11-13], Figure 11.14 is a schematic illustration of an emulsion liquid membrane process, which comprises four main operations. First, fresh product solution is emulsified in the liquid organic membrane phase. This water/oil emulsion then enters a large mixer vessel, where it is again emulsified to form a water/oil/water emulsion. Metal ions in the feed solution permeate by coupled... 

Partitioning of components between two immiscible or partially miscible phases is the basis of classical solvent extraction widely used in numerous separations of industrial interest. Extraction is mostly realized in systems with dispergation of one phase into the second phase. Dispergation could be one origin of problems in many systems of interest, like entrainment of organic solvent into aqueous raffinate, formation of stable, difficult-to-separate emulsions, and so on. To solve these problems new ways of contacting of liquids have been developed. An idea to perform separations in three-phase systems with a liquid membrane is relatively new. The first papers on supported liquid membranes (SLM) appeared in 1967 [1, 2] and the first patent on emulsion liquid membrane was issued in 1968 [3], If two miscible fluids are separated by a liquid, which is immiscible with them, but enables a mass transport between the fluids, a liquid membrane (LM) is formed. A liquid membrane enables transport of components between two fluids at different rates and in this way to perform separation. When all three phases are liquid this process is called pertraction (PT). In most processes with liquids membrane contact of phases is realized without dispergation of phases. 

If solvent extraction may be considered a source technique, derived liquid-liquid separation techniques include configurations in which an extraction solvent is physically immobilized by a coating or impregnation process onto a solid support such as silica, porous resin beads, or foam [13,84—87]. Other derived techniques include membranes of various configurations bulk liquid membranes, supported liquid membranes, emulsion membranes, and polymer-impregnated membranes [88]. Many derived liquid-liquid techniques have been developed, especially for use in analytical applications [13,60,62,64,75,84,85,87]. In each of these derived techniques, the... 

Commercial eind laboratory applications of liquid membrane technology are discussed including gas transport, sensor development, metal ion recovery, waste treatment, biotechnology and biomedical engineering. Immobilized liquid membranes, emulsion or liquid surfactant membranes, and membrane reactors are discussed. Economic data from the literature for liquid membrane processes are presented and compared with existing processes such as solvent extraction and cryogenic distillation of air. 

In describing membrane development, both types of liquid membranes should be distinguished, i.e. the supported liquid membrane (SLM) and the emulsion liquid membrane (ELM). 

An survey of recent developments in membrane processes, involving reverse osmosis (RO), ultrafiltration (UF), microfiltration (MF), electrodialysis (ED), dialysis (D), pervaporation (Pr), gas permeation (GP), and emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), has been provided by Sirkar (1997). 

In this paper an overview of the developments in liquid membrane extraction of cephalosporin antibiotics has been presented. The principle of reactive extraction via the so-called liquid-liquid ion exchange extraction mechanism can be exploited to develop liquid membrane processes for extraction of cephalosporin antibiotics. The mathematical models that have been used to simulate experimental data have been discussed. Emulsion liquid membrane and supported liquid membrane could provide high extraction flux for cephalosporins, but stability problems need to be fully resolved for process application. Non-dispersive extraction in hollow fib er membrane is likely to offer an attractive alternative in this respect. The applicability of the liquid membrane process has been discussed from process engineering and design considerations. 

In order to develop the liquid membrane techniques, i.e., emulsion Hquid membrane (ELM), supported liquid membrane (SLM), non-dispersive extraction in hollow fiber membrane (HFM), etc., for practical processes, it is necessary to generate data on equilibrium and kinetics of reactive extraction. Furthermore, a prior demonstration of the phenomena of facilitated transport in a simple liquid membrane system, the so-called bulk liquid membrane (BLM), is thought to be effective. Since discovery by Li [28], the liquid membrane technique has been extensively studied for the separation of metal ion, amino acid, and carboxyHc acid, etc., from dilute aqueous solutions [29]. 

In the biomedical applications outlined by Ward et al. (7 ), more so than in any other separation application of synthetic polymeric membranes, the goal is to mimic natural membranes. Similarly, the development of liquid membranes and biofunctional membranes represent attempts by man to imitate nature. Liquid membranes were first proposed for liquid separation applications by Li (46-48). These liquid membranes were comprised of a thin liquid film stabilized by a surfactant in an emulsion-type mixture. Wtille these membranes never attained widespread commercial success, the concept did lead to immobilized or supported liquid membranes. In... 

Pales and Stroeve [31] investigated the effect of the continuous phase mass transfer resistance on solute extraction with double emulsion in a batch reactor. They presented an extension of the perturbation analysis technique to give a solution of the model equations of Ho et al. [29] taking external phase mass transfer resistance into account. Kim et al. [5] also developed an unsteady-state advancing reaction front model considering an additional thin outer liquid membrane layer and neglecting the continuous phase resistance. 

Wardius [51] extended the advancing front model to be employed to multistage mixer-settler systems for liquid membrane operations. They presented a zero order solution to the perturbation equations based on the model developed by Ho et al. [29]. The emulsion globule residence time distribution in each mixer was assumed to be exponential and the fractional utilization of internal reagent was given by... 

Park, Y., SkeUand, A.H.P., Forney, L.J. and Kim, J.H. (2006). Removal of phenol and substituted phenols by newly developed emulsion liquid membrane process. Water Res., 40, 1763-72. 

Park, Y. (2006). Development and optimization of novel emulsion liquid membranes stabilized by non-Newtonian conversion in Taylor-Couette flow for extraction of selected organic and metallic contaminants. Ph.D. thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA. 

Promising results are shown by recently developed integrated SLM-ELM [84, 85] systems. These techniques are known as supported liquid membrane with strip dispersion (SLMSD), pseudo-emulsion-based hollow fiber strip dispersion (PEHFSD), emulsion pertraction technology (EPP), and strip dispersion hybrid Hquid membrane (SDHLM). AH techniques are the same the organic phase (carrier, dissolved in diluent) and back extraction aqueous phase are emulsified before injection into the module and can be separated at the module outlet. The difference is only in the type of the SLM contactors hoUow fiber or flat sheet and in the Hquid membrane (carrier) composition. These techniques have been successfuUy demonstrated for the removal and recovery of metals from wastewaters. Nevertheless, the techniques stiU need to be tested in specific apphcations to evaluate the suitabUity of the technology for commercial use. 

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