EXTRACTION OF ABAMECTIN PESTICIDES FROM WASTEWATER BY EMULSION LIQUID MEMBRANE

Emulsion stability is the key difficulty in using emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) method for toxic contaminants sequestration. The present study investigates the stability, the extraction and stripping efficiencies of emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) for Abamectin pesticides removal from aqueous solution. The proposed ELM has been to explore its capability in the extraction and stripping of Abamectin as an example of pesticides from wastewater without using carrier agent. ELM consists of corn oil and kerosene (1:1) as a diluent, 4% (v/v) Span 80 sorbitan monooleate as a surfactant and hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a stripping agent. Factors like mixing speed, HCl concentration, feed phase concentration and external to emulsion volume ratio were assessed. Findings show that the higher stability in terms of breakage percent 0.83 % were formed at 250 rpm of mixing speed, 0.25M HCl, feed phase concentration of 50 ppm, feed phase pH of 5 and 5:1 treat ratio, while 91.4 % and 90% of Abamectin pesticides were extracted and recovered respectively under these conditions. The result of this study can be extended to the removal of other type of pesticides from water and wastewater.