Surface-modified metal membrane for membrane contactor application

The insights from this study allow fast membrane development for specific applications. With pore size, membrane thickness and hydrophobicity/ oleophobicity are adjustable on demand. The tested membranes show good performance in liquid–liquid extraction. State of the art in membrane contactors are polymeric hollow fibre bundles. This geometry is beneficial to mass transfer. Inorganic membranes in hollow fibre geometry are expected to become available at reasonable price in the near future. This will spurn the development of hybrid material membrane contactors as more applications become economically viable.