A Sustainable, Robust, Soft‐Gated Janus Bio‐Membrane for High‐Flux Aromatic Recovery From Saline Industrial Wastewaters

ABSTRACT The selective recovery of aromatic pollutants from saline wastewater remains a central challenge in sustainable chemical engineering. We present a bio‐derived Janus membrane that couples a sorption‐active, mechanically robust wood scaffold with an ultrathin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer for soft‐gated aromatic transport. Spectroscopic, molecular, and free‐volume analyses support transient hydroxyl‐mediated phenol capture, favorable interfacial association, and onward diffusion through PDMS. The membrane achieves an overall phenol mass‐transfer coefficient of 36.9 × 10 −7 m s −1 and 99.4% salt rejection under ambient conditions, with sustained performance in petrochemical and offshore oilfield wastewaters. It combines a tensile strength of ∼70 MPa with consistent separation performance across a meter‐long sheet. Life‐cycle and national‐scale analyses indicate over 85% reductions in environmental impact and over 42 000 tons of CO 2 ‐equivalent mitigation annually. This work establishes a scalable bio‐derived membrane architecture that bridges molecular transport design with aromatic resource recovery, advancing the valorization of saline industrial wastewaters.