Development of Green Emulsion Liquid Membrane for Removal of Phenol from Aqueous Solution: Extraction and Stability Study

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Chemical Engineering Research Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal - 148 106, Punjab, India

2 Food Biotechnology Research Laboratory, Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal - 148 106, Punjab, India

10.24200/sci.2025.66620.10149

Abstract

Vegetable oil (rice bran oil; RBO) as an economic, non-toxic green diluent has been used for phenol removal through green emulsion liquid membrane (GELM) process with an aim to reduce environmental glitches triggered by traditional petroleum-based solvents used in ELM processes. GELM is naturally benign and cost-effective as compared to other existing membranes. During this study, novel GELM was composed of a surfactant (Span 80) as stabilizing agent, NaOH as driving force agent, and green solvent (RBO), a diluent as liquid membrane. The study was performed to visualize and analyse the effect of process factors (feed phase pH, treat ratio, phase ratio, stirring time, stirring speed, and NaOH concentration) on both phenol extraction and GELM stability. Extraction efficiency (90 %) and stability of 135  min without employing carrier agent have been achieved at optimized experimental conditions viz 450 rpm of agitation speed, pH 0.45 of feed solution, 20 min of extraction time, 0.166 [M] of NaOH concentration, 2:1 (v/v) of treat ratio, 0.45 (v/v) of phase ratio, and 30 ± 1  of extraction temperature. This study has confirmed that the RBO-based GELM separation technique has the ability to cut the noxious diluents requirement for ELM formulation. 

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Scientia Iranica

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 December 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 19 April 2025
  • Revise Date: 19 November 2025
  • Accept Date: 09 December 2025

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