Desalination is characterized by rapidly evolving technologies. These technologies are divided mainly into thermal and membrane processes. Thermal processes, however, have numerous limitations, which include intensive use of energy and corrosion problems while membrane processes suffer from membrane fouling and high membrane cost and other problems. Liquid membrane (LMs), on the other hand, which have been discovered in 1968 by Li have no pores to be blocked and cannot be fouled like solid membranes. They also exhibit higher permeabilities and higher selectivities than solid membranes. However, their main problem is the method of containing the liquid between the two miscible but separated donor phase (DP) and receptor phase (RP). LM techniques include... |