Demulsification of Emulsion Liquid Membrane by Wetting Coalescence Materials

Demulsification of emulsified water-in-oil droplets was worked out with the employmentof wetting coalescence materials.Demulsification is carried out in conventional stirred-column andpacked-column.Among the four kinds of natural fibers and two kinds of inorganic materials tested,natural fiber A,originated from wood shavings was found to give the best performance of demulsifica-tion.The demulsification efficiency can exceed 96.5% when demulsification conditions are optimized.The packed-column showed much better performance both in terms of demulsification efficiency andrepeated use of the recovered oil phase for extracting cadmium in simulated wastewater.Operatingvariables governing the demulsification efficiency were investigated.