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Abstract The development of effective, environmentally friendly, and feasible treatment method for removal of Phenolic compounds which are considered one of the most common pollutants present in wastewater effluents from various industriess is becoming more and more important. In recent times, membrane technologies including Pervaporation and membrane distillation techniques have attracted attention as an alternative means of removal of low volatility organics from wastewater, Membrane technologies are considered as an emerging and advanced separation process that has been competing with the other techniques in the last few decades as it acted as solution to the shortcomings of other conventional separation units such as distillation and solvent extraction also due to the recent realization of the environmental impact of the greenhouse gas and the limited nature of the energy sources utilized in the conventional separation techniques the industry sector consumed more than about 51% of total global energy usage For these reasons, and for profitability, there are ongoing efforts to develop less energy intense separation technologies. Removal of Phenol via membrane separation techniques using different polymeric membranes utilizing a separation setup which consisted of membrane cell, peristaltic pump, condenser, thermostat, and vacuum pump was studied. Different polymeric membranes were prepared and used to study the separation for phenol-water mixture. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with (SA) blend membrane and cellulose acetate (CA) membrane were utilized for the pervaporation process while PVDF membrane was utilized for the vacuum membrane process. The effects of different parameters such as initial feed concentration, operating temperature, and the feed flow rate on phenol removal was investigated. Pervaporation membranes were found to permeate water selectively meanwhile PVDF membranes was hydrophilic and allowed phenol molecules selectively to permeate through the membrane, The separation factor was enhanced at elevated temperature for the pervaporation process and at lower temperature for vacuum membrane distilaation and higher phenol feed concentration resulted in higher separation factor. III Scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, contact angle, Mechanical test and XRD analysis were used to study the characteristics of the membranes utilized. The high phenol separation factor qualifies pervaporation technique via Cellulose acetate membrane for removal low volatility organics from wastewater. |