Solvent extraction with methylacetate

In biotechnology, the products concerned are removed from aqueous solution by extraction with methylacetate, butylacetate, isobutyl methyl ketone etc. The remaining aqueous substrate is saturated with the extraction solvents. Sometimes this causes problems with regard to environmental regulations. Table V shows that the solvents can be remored almost entirely by reverse osmosis. The concentrate consists of two phases, namely, the solvent saturated with water and the water saturated with solvent. These can be separated by means of a settler. The water phase is recirculated to the reverse osmosis. The saturated solubility in Water at room temperature is 19 OOO mg/litre for isobutyl methyl ketone, 3300 mg/litre for butyl acetate and 9 500 mg/litre for methyl acetate. As the results in table V show, the retention for isobutyl-methyl ketone increases with increasing concentration. This result is remarkable, as generally a decrease in retention is observed with increasing concentration. 

An excellent example of PLC applications in the indirect coupling version is provided by the works of Miwa et al. [12]. These researchers separated eight phospholipid standards and platelet phospholipids from the other lipids on a silica gel plate. The mobile phase was composed of methylacetate-propanol-chloro-form-methanol-0.2% (w/v) potassium chloride (25 30 20 10 10, v/v). After detection with iodine vapor (Figure 9.2), each phospholipid class was scraped off and extracted with 5 ml of methanol. The solvent was removed under a stream of nitrogen, and the fatty acids of each phospholipid class were analyzed (as their hydrazides) by HPLC. The aim of this study was to establish a standardized... 

The third column (118) was a simple rectification column in which decane was separated from THF/ ethylacetate. Decane was recycled into the extraction column 116. Compared to different alternatives, which were simulated, this process has the following advantages. Water was eliminated from the ethylacetate/ THF-mixtures before their rectification. This approach takes advantage of the fact that the VLE-data of ethylacetate/ THF are more favorable than the ones of ethylacetate/ THF/ water. The counter current extraction with decane allows an efficient separation of the polar impurities such as methanol, ethanol, and acetic acid. Furthermore decane eliminated the water from the recovered solvent mixture (extractive rectification in column 117). Methylacetate posed a further problem and a rectification column was necessary to separate it from THF. The stripping column 117 combined the dewatering and the elimination of methylacetate. 

Process 2 - Process Description. The impurities in the raw material form azeotropes with tetrahydrofuran and ethylacetate. All the azeotropes had to be separated by a combination of counter current extraction and rectification. The aim was to recover ethylacetate and THF. The following major problems had to be solved by a solvent recovery unit 1) separate the THF/ methanol and the THF/ ethanol azeotropes, 2) dewater the THF and ethylacetate (azeotropes), 3) separate THF (Atmospheric boiling point (Tb) = 65.7°C) from ethylacetate (Tb= 77°C) and methylacetate (Tb = 57.1°C). 

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