Membrane contactor technology has been demonstrated in the field of liquid/liquid metal ion separation as a powerful approach to improve the performance of solvent extraction processes normally carried out in conventional equipment such as packed towers, mixer settlers, extraction columns etc. Metal mass transfer operations can be conducted using a number of different membrane configurations, including flat sheet, spiral wound, rotating annular and hollow fiber, although on a larger-scale the latter has received the most attention due to its high packing density (Baker, 2000). The hollow-fiber contactors have found an application in various membrane-based extraction processes, such as supported liquid membrane (SLM), emulsion liquid membrane (ELM), contained liquid membrane (CLM), non-dispersive solvent extraction (NDSX), and pseudo-emulsion-based hollow fiber strip dispersion (PEHFSD) (Drioli et al., 2006; Mulder, 2000).
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