Effective removal of dyes along with binary mixture via optimized emulsion liquid membrane

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the removal of harmful cationic dyes, namely brilliant green and safranin-O, from wastewater produced by industries like textile, pigment, and pharmaceutical, which pose a direct threat to human health and the environment. An emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) was employed to eliminate these dyes, and the efficiency of the membrane was measured by calculating the percentage of dye removal and the breaking rate. The study successfully optimized the ELM process to remove the dyes within an hour and demonstrated the membrane’s stability for more than 60 minutes. The results showed that the prepared ELM could remove 100% of the brilliant green dye and 99.6% of the safranin-O dye. A maximum breaking rate of 0.029% was obtained for brilliant green and 0.008% for safranin-O. Furthermore, the study resulted in the maximum removal of 99.36% and 99.15% for brilliant green and safranin-O dyes, respectively, in the binary system. When both dyes were present simultaneously, the maximum breakage observed was only 0.16%. The experimental results were analyzed using a UV–visible spectrophotometer and an optical microscope, and the optimization and analysis of the variance of means and signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio were carried out using the Taguchi L16 orthogonal array.