POLYDISPERSITY EFFECT IN FACILITATED TRANSPORT THROUGH LIQUID SURFACTANT MEMBRANES

An advancing reaction-front model has been proposed in the present stu dy of facilitated transport through liquid surfactant membranes by tak ing into consideration a size distribution of emulsion drops. The mode l takes into account the continuous and outer liquid membrane phase re sistances along with diffusion through composite emulsion drops. The e ffect of various dispersion phenomena on the mass transfer rate of sol ute has been discussed for two different operating conditions correspo nding to different drop size distributions but having the same Sauter mean diameter. Membrane leakage is assumed to be negligible.