investigation of some effective factors on the extraction of uranium by emulsion liquid membrane

In this study, the extraction of uranium from aqueous solution is studied using water-in-oil (w/o) emulsion liquid membrane (elm) system. the elm constitutes kerosene as an organic diluent, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (d2ehpa) as a carrier, sorbitan monooleate (span-80) as a surfactant for stabilizing the emulsion phase, sulfuric acid as a stripping solution and potassium chloride (kcl) as a tracer [1]. response surface methodology (rsm) based on central composite design (ccd) is carried out to explore the relationships between process variables namely initial ph of the donor phase, sulphuric acid concentration in the acceptor phase, surfactant concentration in the liquid membrane phase and mixing speed, and their interactions. the contours and 3d response surfaces of selective extraction of u were achieved [2]. the hydrodynamic parameters mentioned above were optimized for achieving the maximum uranium extraction with minimum emulsion breakage and swelling. the residence time required for adequate pertraction of uranium has been evaluated. the effect of other factors was also investigated on a case-by-case basis at points obtained on efficiency. the effect of the selected factors and the effect of their interactions were studied to obtain the optimal conditions. the results showed that the best extraction efficiency and emulsion stability is obtained at ph of donor phase=3; span 80 volume percentage in the membrane phase= 2 % v/v; emulsion/donor phase volume ratio= 0.1; sulfuric acid concentration as a stripping solution is 0.6 molar, and mixing speed = 180 rpm. the role of ph as an important parameter in the elm process for extraction of uranium was studied. with these conditions, the extraction efficiency of 99.923% was obtained within 15 min and the measured values of emulsion breakage and swelling were 0.083% and 0.424%, respectively.