Modeling and simulation of copper ion extraction with hollow fiber supported liquid membrane

Abstract

Recently, hollow fiber supported liquid membrane technology has been widely used for the selective separation and concentration of various species from dilute solutions, especially metal ion separation. This is because it combines the process of extraction, stripping and regeneration into a single stage. In this research, the extraction of copper ion through the hollow fiber supported liquid membrane containing bis(2-ethylexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) dissolved in kerosene as a mobile carrier was studied. A mass transfer based mathematical model was proposed considering aqueous layer diffusion in feed and stripping side, interfacial chemical reaction and membrane diffusion. The model could be used to study both once-through mode operation and recycling mode operation. The effects of parameters on the removal efficiency of copper ion were discussed, i.e., the D2EHPA concentration in membrane phase, the initial Cu²⁺ concentration in feed solution, the pH in feed solution, the initial H⁺ in stripping phase, and the flow rate of feed solution. It was found that the model provided the removal efficiency of copper ion in good agreement with the measured results (the average error percentage and the standard deviation, 10.21 and 12.41, respectively).