Extraction miscible

Best ternary predictions are usually obtained for mixtures having a very broad two-phase region, i.e., where the two partially miscible liquids have only small mutual solubilities. Fortunately, this is the type of ternary that is most often used in commercial liquid-liquid extraction. 

Solvent power characterizes the miscibility of solute and solvent. This concept covers two types of uses dissolving a solid or reducing the viscosity of a liquid. The solvent power should be as high as possible. However, a solvent used as an extractant should also be selective, i.e., extract certain substances preferentially from the feed being treated. 

The theory of the process can best be illustrated by considering the operation, frequently carried out in the laboratory, of extracting an orgaiuc compound from its aqueous solution with an immiscible solvent. We are concerned here with the distribution law or partition law which, states that if to a system of two liquid layers, made up of two immiscible or slightly miscible components, is added a quantity of a third substance soluble in both layers, then the substance distributes itself between the two layers so that the ratio of the concentration in one solvent to the concentration in the second solvent remains constant at constant temperature. It is assumed that the molecular state of the substance is the same in both solvents. If and Cg are the concentrations in the layers A and B, then, at constant temperature ... 

In the isolation of organic compounds from aqueous solutions, use is frequently made of the fact that the solubility of many organic substances in water is considerably decreased by the presence of dissolved inorganic salts (sodium chloride, calcium chloride, ammonium sulphate, etc.). This is the so-called salting-out effect. A further advantage is that the solubility of partially miscible organic solvents, such as ether, is considerably less in the salt solution, thus reducing the loss of solvent in extractions. 

Dual solvent fractional extraction (Fig. 7b) makes use of the selectivity of two solvents (A and B) with respect to consolute components C and D, as defined in equation 7. The two solvents enter the extractor at opposite ends of the cascade and the two consolute components enter at some point within the cascade. Solvent recovery is usually an important feature of dual solvent fractional extraction and provision may also be made for reflux of part of the product streams containing C or D. Simplified graphical and analytical procedures for calculation of stages for dual solvent extraction are available (5) for the cases where is constant and the two solvents A and B are not significantly miscible. In general, the accurate calculation of stages is time-consuming (28) but a computer technique has been developed (56). 

The overall extraction process is sometimes subdivided into two general categories according to the main mechanisms responsible for the dissolution stage (/) those operations that occur because of the solubiHty of the solute in or its miscibility with the solvent, eg, oilseed extraction, and (2) extractions where the solvent must react with a constituent of the soHd material in order to produce a compound soluble in the solvent, eg, the extraction of metals from metalliferous ores. In the former case the rate of extraction is most likely to be controUed by diffusion phenomena, but in the latter the kinetics of the reaction producing the solute may play a dominant role. 

The purified acid is recovered from the loaded organic stream by contacting with water in another countercurrent extraction step. In place of water, an aqueous alkafl can be used to recover a purified phosphate salt solution. A small portion of the purified acid is typically used in a backwashing operation to contact the loaded organic phase and to improve the purity of the extract phase prior to recovery of the purified acid. Depending on the miscibility of the solvent with the acid, the purified acid and the raffinate may be stripped of residual solvent which is recycled to the extraction loop. The purified acid can be treated for removal of residual organic impurities, stripped of fluoride to low (10 ppm) levels, and concentrated to the desired P2 s Many variations of this basic scheme have been developed to improve the extraction of phosphate and rejection of impurities to the raffinate stream, and numerous patents have been granted on solvent extraction processes. 

Among the properties sought in the solvent are low cost, avadabihty, stabiUty, low volatiUty at ambient temperature, limited miscibility in aqueous systems present in the process, no solvent capacity for the salts, good solvent capacity for the acids, and sufficient difference in distribution coefficient of the two acids to permit their separation in the solvent-extraction operation. Practical solvents are C, C, and alcohols. For industrial process, alcohols are the best choice (see Amyl alcohols). Small quantities of potassium nitrate continue to be produced from natural sources, eg, the caUche deposits in Chile. 

Several N-substituted pyrroHdinones eg, ethyl, hydroxyethyl and cyclohexyl, are used primarily in specialized solvent appHcations where their particular physical properties are advantageous. For example, mixtures of l-cyclohexyl-2-pyrroHdinone and water exhibit two phases at temperatures above 50°C below that temperature they are miscible in aH proportions. This phenomenon can be used to facHitate some extractive separations. Mixtures of 1-alkyl-pyrroHdinones that are derived from coconut and taHow amines can be used at lower cost in certain appHcations where they may be used instead of the pure l-dodecyl-2-pyrroHdinone and l-octadecyl-2-pyrroHdinone. 

Extractive distillation is defined as distillation in the presence of a miscible, high boiling, relatively nonvolatile component, the solvent, that forms no azeotropes with the other components in the mixture (23). It is widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries for separating azeotropic, close-boiling, and other low relative volatiUty mixtures, including those forming severe tangent pinches. 

Robbins ( Oquid-Liquid Extraction, in Schweitzer, Handbook of Separation Techniques for Chemical Engineers, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1979, sec. 1.9) reported that most liquid-liquid extrac tion systems can be treated as having either (A) immiscible solvents, (B) partially miscible solvents with a low solute concentration in the extract, or (C) partially miscible solvents with a high solute concentration in the extract. 

In case B the solvents are partially miscible, and the miscibihty is nearly constant through the extractor. This frequently occurs when all solute concentrations are relatively low. The feed stream is assumed to dissolve extraction solvent only in the feed stage and to retain the same amount throughout the extractor. Likewise, the extraction solvent is assumed to dissolve feed solvent only in the raffinate stage. With these assumptions the primary extraction-solvent rate moving through the extractor is assumed to be S, and the primary feed-... 

It has been found that the growth hormone can be obtained in crystalline form from human pituitary glands by procedures comprising (1) extraction of the fresh glands with acetone, (2) extraction of the acetone residue with aqueous salt solutions, (3) precipitation from aqueous salt solutions by the addition of suitable miscible organic solvents of alkaline and acid pH, and finally crystallization from aqueous salt solutions by the addition of suitable miscible organic solvents. 

Most of the chiral membrane-assisted applications can be considered as a modality of liquid-liquid extraction, and will be discussed in the next section. However, it is worth mentioning here a device developed by Keurentjes et al., in which two miscible chiral liquids with opposing enantiomers of the chiral selector flow counter-currently through a column, separated by a nonmiscible liquid membrane [179]. In this case the selector molecules are located out of the liquid membrane and both enantiomers are needed. The system allows recovery of the two enantiomers of the racemic mixture to be separated. Thus, using dihexyltartrate and poly(lactic acid), the authors described the resolution of different drugs, such as norephedrine, salbu-tamol, terbutaline, ibuprofen or propranolol. 

In supported liquid membranes, a chiral liquid is immobilized in the pores of a membrane by capillary and interfacial tension forces. The immobilized film can keep apart two miscible liquids that do not wet the porous membrane. Vaidya et al. [10] reported the effects of membrane type (structure and wettability) on the stability of solvents in the pores of the membrane. Examples of chiral separation by a supported liquid membrane are extraction of chiral ammonium cations by a supported (micro-porous polypropylene film) membrane [11] and the enantiomeric separation of propranolol (2) and bupranolol (3) by a nitrate membrane with a A/ -hexadecyl-L-hydroxy proline carrier [12]. 

As described above, the application of classical liquid- liquid extractions often results in extreme flow ratios. To avoid this, a completely symmetrical system has been developed at Akzo Nobel in the early 1990s [64, 65]. In this system, a supported liquid-membrane separates two miscible chiral liquids containing opposite chiral selectors (Fig. 5-13). When the two liquids flow countercurrently, any desired degree of separation can be achieved. As a result of the system being symmetrical, the racemic mixture to be separated must be added in the middle. Due to the fact that enantioselectivity usually is more pronounced in a nonaqueous environment, organic liquids are used as the chiral liquids and the membrane liquid is aqueous. In this case the chiral selector molecules are lipophilic in order to avoid transport across the liquid membrane. 

Extractions and separations in two-phase systems require knowledge of the miscibilities and immiscibilities of ILs with other solvents compatible with the process. These are most usually IL/aqueous biphase systems in which the IL is the less polar phase and organic/IL systems in which the IL is used as the polar phase. In these two-phase systems, extraction both to and from the IL phase is important. 

From empirical observation, ILs tend to be immiscible with non-polar solvents. They can therefore be washed or brought into contact with diethyl ether or hexane to extract non-polar reaction products. Among solvents of greater polarity, esters (ethyl acetate, for example) exhibit variable solubility with ILs, depending on the nature of the IL. Polar or dipolar solvents (including chloroform, acetonitrile, and methanol) appear to be totally miscible with all ILs (excepting tetrachloroaluminate IL and the like, which react). Among notable exceptions, [EMIMJCl and [BMIMJCl are insoluble in dry acetone. 

Since no special ligand design is usually required to dissolve transition metal complexes in ionic liquids, the application of ionic ligands can be an extremely useful tool with which to immobilize the catalyst in the ionic medium. In applications in which the ionic catalyst layer is intensively extracted with a non-miscible solvent (i.e., under the conditions of biphasic catalysis or during product recovery by extraction) it is important to ensure that the amount of catalyst washed from the ionic liquid is extremely low. Full immobilization of the (often quite expensive) transition metal catalyst, combined with the possibility of recycling it, is usually a crucial criterion for the large-scale use of homogeneous catalysis (for more details see Section 5.3.5). 

The major advantage of the use of two-phase catalysis is the easy separation of the catalyst and product phases. FFowever, the co-miscibility of the product and catalyst phases can be problematic. An example is given by the biphasic aqueous hydro-formylation of ethene to propanal. Firstly, the propanal formed contains water, which has to be removed by distillation. This is difficult, due to formation of azeotropic mixtures. Secondly, a significant proportion of the rhodium catalyst is extracted from the reactor with the products, which prevents its efficient recovery. Nevertheless, the reaction of ethene itself in the water-based Rh-TPPTS system is fast. It is the high solubility of water in the propanal that prevents the application of the aqueous biphasic process [5]. 

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