Bulk liquid pertraction of NaCl from aqueous solution using carrier-mediated transport

Abstract

In the present work, removal of NaCl using the bulk liquid membrane (BLM) technique has been investigated, using a simple apparatus for conducting the experiments. Variables investigated were volume ratio of donor phase (DP) to receptor phase (RP), presence of sequestering agent (SA) in RP, type of organic liquid membrane (LM), quantity of mobile carrier (MC) in the LM. Stirring speed and volume of LM were kept constant at 100 rpm and 130 ml, respectively. The mass transfer of NaCl was analysed based on kinetic laws of two consecutive irreversible first-order reactions, and kinetic parameters (k_1d, k_2m, k_2r, , t_max, , and ) for the transport of NaCl were investigated. The values obtained demonstrate that the process is diffusionally controlled. Results indicate that the membrane entrance and exit rate constants (k₁, k₂) increase with decreasing DP:RP ratio and with decrease in quantity of MC, and quantity of SA, and the presence of dichloroethane (DCE) is preferred to chloroform (CF) as LM.

Keywords:

• bulk liquid membrane
• carrier-mediated transport
• kinetic parameters
• mobile carrier
• removal of NaCl

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the kind support of Science and Technology Development Funds (STDF) of Egypt for funding the research projects (ID: 4067) on desalination of seawater through the application of the LM technique.