High Flux Recovery of Copper(II) from Ammoniacal Solution with Stable Sandwich Supported Liquid Membrane

Abstract

The recovery of Cu(II) from ammoniacal solutions with the sandwich supported liquid membrane was studied by using 4-ethyl-1-phenyl-1,3-octadione as the carrier. The transport behavior of Cu(II), membrane stability and selectivity were investigated. The transport efficiency of Cu(II) in the membrane module is evidently dependent on the feed pH, carrier concentration, phase ratio and temperature, but almost independent of the H2SO4 concentration in receiving phase. The increase of carrier concentration and temperature can simultaneously enhance Cu(II) transport and initial copper flux in the feed phase, while both of them decrease as the phase ratio increases. The initial copper flux can reach 759 mmol m–2 h–1 at 45 °C. A satisfied membrane stability was obtained, and the copper concentration in the receiving phase can reach 3.91 g L–1 via uphill transport after five cycles. The main transport resistance could derive from the diffusion process of the copper complexes through the receiving phase/membrane interface. Moreover, the Cu(II) can be selectively recovered over Ni(II) and Zn(II). The high flux and good membrane stability makes the system promising for recovering metal values from various industrial process effluents.