Chromium (VI) removal by Aliquat-336 in a novel multiframe flat sheet membrane contactor

Recently designed, a multiframe flat sheet membrane contactors (MF-FSMC), consisting in ten parallel frames alternating aqueous and organic phase, was successfully used for chromium (VI) removal from aqueous solution. As a result, five chambers contain aqueous phase and the others contain the organic phase. Aliquat-336 was used as a carrier using polypropylene flat sheet membrane for Chromium (VI) removal. The results show that the extraction was more efficient by increasing the inlet chromium concentration and the number of frames but was not affected by the increasing of the thickness of frames (volume of chambers). To determine the interaction between different parameters, a full factorial design of experiment was used. The results show that the concentration of Aliquat-336 was the most important parameter, decreasing the efficiency of the system when increasing its concentration. Moreover, the temperature and the membrane contact aera have a positive effect on the extraction efficiency. However, no interaction effects were found in the chosen interval. The optimal values of different parameters are 10 % for Aliquat-336 concentration, 59 cm(2) for the membrane contact area and 40 degrees C for the temperature.