Serial-module with hydrophilic and hydrophobic membranes applied for oil recovery from O/W emulsion

[Display omitted] •Two membranes with opposite wettability constructed a serial-module.•The module can efficiently recover oil phase from O/W emulsion with 10 vol% oil.•The module can still operate steadily in O/W emulsion containing yeast.•The module is promising for recovering oil phase of fermentation broth extraction. Membrane demulsification has been extensively employed for separating various oil–water mixtures, however, the recovery oil droplets from highly emulsified O/W mixtures remains a challenge. Herein, we develop a serial-module comprising arranged hydrophilic and hydrophobic membranes to recover the oil phase from O/W emulsion. Firstly, hydrophobic ceramic membranes were prepared through silane modification and separation performance towards emulsion with oil–water ratio of 1:1 was evaluated for both original hydrophilic membranes and modified hydrophobic ones. Subsequent, the sclareol extraction emulsion was chosen as a representative object to investigate and explore the separation performance of preferred membranes under varying oil–water ratios and surfactant concentrations. Ultimately, the results shows that serial-module demonstrated remarkable capability to recover emulsified oil droplets from sclareol extraction emulsion with 10 vol% oil even under complex conditions with yeast addition. This innovative serial-module provides a novel approach for efficiently separating emulsified mixtures of oil and water.