Green Liquid Membrane: Development and Challenges

Wastewaters are a potential source of pollutants causing serious problems to the environment. Liquid membrane is able to remove contaminants in wastewaters [1], among other techniques such as chemical precipitation, coagulation–flocculation, flotation, ion exchange, electro-oxidation and adsorption [2,3]. It has been given considerable attention by researchers due to its outstanding characteristics such as simultaneous pollutants removal and materials recovery in a single unit, non-equilibrium mass transfer, high selectivity, high fluxes, reusability and low energy consumption [4]. Liquid membrane is a process that involves the transport of a solute from an aqueous phase through an immiscible organic phase to another aqueous phase [5]. Organic phase used are usually composed of a carrier and a diluent [6].