Coupled membrane processes and their biomimetic fundamentals

The paper deals with liquid membrane transport and separation phenomena tha t are related to their natural counterparts. Designing of some complex mult imembrane hybrid systems and their practical embodiment are presented. Meta l cation fluxes and separation characteristics for a simple multimembrane h ybrid system (MHS) and its variants such as Donnan dialysis-MHS (DD-MHS) an d pervaporation-MHS (PV-MHS) integrated processes are presented and discuss ed. Experimental studies have been carried out with the use of commercial c ation-exchange membranes, a liquid membrane (kerosene with D2EHPA.) and the pervaporation membrane (Pervap 1000). The membrane systems were tested and recognized to exhibit selective and stable permeation rates of Zn2+ from m ulticomponent aqueous solutions containing zinc, calcium, magnesium, sodium , and potassium nitrates.