Emulsion Liquid Membrane for Pesticides Removal from Aqueous Solution: Emulsion Stability, Extraction Efficiency and Mass Transfer Studies

The current study investigated the stability and the extraction efficiency of emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) for Abamectin pesticide removal from aqueous solution. The stability was investigated in terms of droplet emulsion size distribution and emulsion breakage percent. The proposed ELM included a mixture of corn oil and kerosene (1:1) as a diluent, Span 80 (sorbitan monooleate) as a surfactant and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a stripping agent without utilizing a carrier agent. Parameters such as homogenizer speed, surfactant concentration, emulsification time and internal to organic volume ratio (I/O) were evaluated. Results show that the lower droplet size of 0.9 µm and higher stable emulsion in terms of breakage percent of 1.12 % were formed at 5800 rpm of homogenizer speed, 4 v% of span 80 surfactant, 8 min of emulsification time and 1:1 (I/O) ratio while 86.4% of Abamectin pesticides were extracted under these conditions. Extraction kinetics and mass transfer study were also accomplished. The outcome of this study can be extended to the removal of other type of pesticides from water and wastewater.