ABSTRACT

Traditionally, solvent extraction involves contacting of an aqueous and organic phase in order to extract solutes such as metal ions or biochemical products to separate them from mixtures or to concentrate them. The organic "solvent" may contain a chelation ligand or ion exchanger in a diluent. Along with the contactor, process equipment requires fluid phase separators to separate the loaded organic extractant from the aqueous feed. Then a stripping step is required to recover the metal ion/biochemical and, perhaps, regeneration of the solvent. Such liquid extraction processes have wide applicability for high-volume hydrometallurgical, radionuclear, and biochemical separations.