Selective separation and concentration of vanadium(V) by a chemical pumping hollow-fiber supported liquid membrane

A hollow fiber supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) system for the separation and concentration of vanadium (V) has been developed and characterized by using tricaprylylmethylammonium chloride (Aliquat 336®) dissolved in dodecane as carrier. The transport of vanadium through the liquid membrane is based on a pH gradient between feed and stripping solutions to provide an appropriate change on the chemical species of aqueous vanadate, i.e., aqueous metavanadate, VO2(OH)2−1 (4.0 < pH < 7.0) is extracted by Aliquat 336 and VO3OH2− (pH > 8.0) is not extracted. Selective separation and concentration experiments were carried out at low vanadium(V) concentration (mg 1−1 level). The study of the HFSLM includes the influence of hydrodynamic, physical and chemical conditions, i.e., flow rate of feed solution through the fibers, number and length of fibers, lifetime of the system, initial vanadium concentration in the feed solution, and pH of aqueous phases. Transport of V(V) increases with the flow rate of the feed solution through the fibers until a ‘plateau’ is reached (> 0.2 ml min−1 in a single fiber). It has been shown that in a HFSLM module, the membrane area increases with the number of fibers but also there is an increase of the sterical hindrance between the fibers which reduces the expected increase of vanadium transport. On the other hand, the length of the fibers has a scarce influence on the transport process. The effect of the acidity of the feed solution on the vanadium transport shows a similar behavior to that obtained previously for liquid-liquid distribution and laminar SLM studies. The results obtained indicate that vanadium(V) can be effectively concentrated and selectively separated by hollow fiber SLM containing Aliquat 336® as carrier.