The waste oil emulsion liquid membrane produced by waste oil from oil refineries (WELM) is used to separate the phenol in purified water from the sour water stripper in oil refinery facilities, and the stability of WELM was studied. It is verified that waste refinery oil can be produced into emulsion liquid membrane with good stability and high removal rate for the first time. The WELM stability models were established by response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN), respectively. The principle and mechanism of various parameters, as well as the interaction effects on the stability of WELM, are proposed. The effects of parameters, including the ratio of Span-80, liquid paraffin, the ratio of internal and oil, and the rotational speed of the homogenizer, were investigated. Under the optimal operating parameters, the WELM had a demulsification percentage of just 0.481%, and the prediction results of RSM and ANN were 0.536% and 0.545%, respectively. Both models demonstrate good predictability. The WELM stability model has a high application value in the treatment of phenol-containing wastewater in the oil refining industry, and provides a green method of resource recovery.

The enhancement of mass transfer is very important in CO₂ absorption, and a rotating zigzag bed (RZB) is a promising device to intensify the gas–liquid mass transfer efficiency. In this study, the mass transfer characteristics in an RZB in relation to the overall gas-phase volumetric mass-transfer coefficient (K_Ga) were investigated with a CO₂–NaOH system. A mathematical model was established to illustrate the mechanism of the gas–liquid mass transfer with irreversible pseudo-first-order reaction in the RZB. The effects of various operating conditions on K_Ga were examined. Experimental results show that a rise in the liquid flow rate, inlet gas flow rate, rotational speed, absorbent temperature, and absorbent concentration was conducive to the mass transfer between gas and liquid in the RZB. It was found that the rotational speed had the largest impact on K_Ga in the RZB. The K_Ga predicted by the model agreed well with that by the experiments, with deviations generally within 10%. Therefore, this model can be employed to depict the mass transfer process between gas and liquid in an RZB and provide guidance for the application of RZBs in CO₂ absorption.