Chlorpyrifos Removal from Aqueous Solutions by Emulsion Liquid Membrane – Stability, Extraction, and Stripping Studies

Abstract

The current paper focuses on assessing key parameters affecting the extraction of Chlorpyrifos as well as emulsion stability using the emulsion liquid membrane technology. Five parameters affecting the extraction have been studied: homogenizer speed, emulsification time, agitating time, surfactant concentration, and stripping phase concentration taking into consideration the emulsion breaking. Experiments proved that using the resulting optimum values will maximize both extraction and stripping efficiencies (93.8% and 94.7% respectively), while minimizing the emulsion breakage (increasing the stability of emulsion) to 0.73% with no need to employ a carrier agent. A 10 min agitating time, 3% (v/v) Span 80 as a surfactant, 12700-rpm homogenizer speed, 0.25 M HCl as an internal phase concentration, and 5 min emulsification time are chosen to be the optimum parameters' values. A study of extraction kinetics and estimation of mass transfer coefficient was also accomplished (3.89×10 -9 m/s). The conclusions of this work can be extended to the removal of other types of pesticides from water.