Kinetics of Extraction of Tributyl phosphate (TBP) from Aqueous Feed in Single Stage Air-sparged Mixing Unit

Abstract

Abstract The mass transfer studies involving kinetics of extraction of Tributyl phosphate (TBP) saturated in 0.3 M nitric acid using different organic extractants viz. normal paraffinic hydrocarbon (NPH), kerosene, dodecane etc. have been performed in a novel air-sparged single stage mixing unit. Based on the mechanism, a simple kinetic model (analogous to first order) is proposed and experimental data was analyzed. The optimization studies including the effect of diluent, % TBP in NPH, Organic to Aqueous phase (O/A), air flowrate and the nitric acid concentration in aqueous phase have been performed. The experimental and modeled kinetic results suggest that the optimized conditions for the extraction of TBP (174 ppm to 65.5 ppm) from aqueous 0.3 M HNO3 feed are found to be, 3 % TBP in NPH as extracting solvent, O/A is 1/1 and volumetric air flowrate is 15 LPM. However, if pure NPH used as an extractant with these operating conditions 100 % removal can be obtained.