Quaternary ammonium membrane was made from polymerizing chloromethyl styrene crosslinking with divinylbenzene by the paste method, and immobilized with tertiary amine (tri-methylamine, triethylamine, tripropylamine or tri-n-butylamine). Phenol was recovered from 2500 ppm to 2 ppm from the simulated waste water in the form of useful product allyl phenyl ether using quaternary ammonium salt as phase-transfer catalyst in a horizontal membrane reactor. The ion-exchange capacity, water content and thickness in the membrane were determined. The turnover numbers of the phenol allylation for different quaternary ammonium membranes were also calculated by means of response surface methodology method. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.