Abstract

Recovery of propionic acid from different sources, like aqueous streams or from fermentation broth, is important in view of its wide usage in food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Reactive extraction is an emerging separation technique having numerous advantages like high selectivity and recovery. Effect of acid concentration, extractant concentration, pH, temperature and kinetics are the important steps in the reactive extraction. Equilibrium of propionic acid extraction using tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) and Aliquat 336 in n-hexanol respectively was carried out to find the better extractant out of the two for extraction of propionic acid. Aliquat 336 was found to be better than TBP with K_s = 2.2119 m³/kmol, thus indicating good complexation between it and the acid. The kinetics of extraction of the acid using Aliquat 336 in a stirred cell was investigated. The reaction was found to be first order in acid concentration and zero order in Aliquat 336 concentration. The reaction was found to be fast pseudo first order reaction occurring in the diffusion film and was found to be independent of hydrodynamics conditions. Rate constant was evaluated to be 163.398 1/s.

Recommended Citation

Wasewar, Dr. Kailas L.; Keshav, Amit; and Chand, Shri (2009) "Equilibrium and Kinetics of Reactive Extraction of Propionic Acid Using Aliquat 336 and Tri-n-Butyl Phosphate in n-Hexanol," International Journal of Chemical Reactor Engineering: Vol. 7: A35.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ijcre/vol7/A35