An eco-inspired emulsion membrane harnessed with waste vegetable oil for effective separation of ibuprofen: Insights into stability, performance, and kinetics

Authors

• Huma Warsi Khan, Universiti Teknologi Petronas
• A. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Visvesvaraya Technological University
• Parvez Alam Khan, Universiti Teknologi Petronas
• Samsur Akm Rahman, New York City College of TechnologyFollow
• Muhammad Moniruzzaman, CUNY New York City College of TechnologyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2026

Abstract

Emulsion liquid membranes (ELMs) have emerged as excellent alternatives for the separation and recovery of biologically active drugs (BADs) from industrial waste at trace concentrations. Conventional ELMs generally utilize toxic petroleum-based solvents (PBS) that pose environmental and health risks. Although virgin vegetable oils have been appeared as sustainable alternatives to PBS, their widespread application is limited by economic constraints, resource sustainability, and competition with the food supply. In contrast, waste vegetable oil (WVO) represents an abundant, low-cost, and eco-friendly alternative, yet its potential as a green diluent for ELMs remains largely unexplored. To address this challenge, present study investigated the efficacy of WVO as a potential alternative to virgin vegetable oils (VO) in the development of ELMs. WVO not only serves as a greener option but also mitigates disposal issues. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a stable, reusable, and sustainable WVO based ionic liquid emulsion liquid membrane (WVO-IL-ELM) for the efficient recovery of ibuprofen (IBF) from aqueous solutions. Accordingly, a stable and eco-friendly membrane was formulated using WVO as the green diluent, Span 80 as the surfactant, tetramethylammonium acetate ([TMAm][Ac]) as the carrier, and NaOH as the stripping agent. The effects of IL and surfactant concentrations on membrane stability and separation performance were systematically investigated. The optimized membrane exhibited a breakage rate of only 0.42%, remained stable for 144 min, and followed first-order stability kinetics. The WVO-IL-ELM system exhibited satisfactory reusability over four consecutive cycles, retaining an extraction efficiency of ≥ 75%.

Comments

This article was originally published in Next Materials, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nxmate.2026.103294

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).