Red 3BS dye extraction in liquid surfactant membrane using continuous extractive reactor process

Nowadays, the use of liquid membrane process in treating dye waste solution is more preferable compared to the batch mode as it provides higher recovery performance and huge treated volume. The aim of this paper is to determine the extraction efficiency of using continuous liquid surfactant membrane (CLSM) process for extraction of reactive dye Red 3BS in order to ensure that LSM process more applicable and commercialize in industries. Liquid membrane process comprises of three liquid phases which are external (dye aqueous solution), organic liquid membrane and internal aqueous phase was developed. Liquid membrane and internal aqueous phase were emulsified and dispersed into the wastewater solution (feed/dye aqueous phase) to be treated. The organic liquid membranes contain Aliquat 336, D2EHPA, Sorbitan Monooleote (Span 80) and kerosene as an extractant, synergist extractant surfactant and diluents, were used respectively. The sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was used as stripping agent in internal aqueous phase for the recovery process. The main factors studied for continuous dye extraction process were agitation speed, retention lime and treatment ratio. The system shows stable performance within 15 min duration of continuous extraction time along the process. The results showed that almost 100 % of Reactive Red 3BS ions were successfully extracted at the optimum conditions of 250 rpm agitation speed, 1: 7 of treatment ratio and 5 min of retention time. Therefore, as a conclusion, CLSM can be proposed as a very promising method for extraction of Red 3BS. (paper)