Studies on the recovery of uranium from phosphoric acid medium using synergistic mixture of (2-Ethyl hexyl) Phosphonic acid, mono (2-ethyl hexyl) ester (PC88A) and Tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP)

This paper describes the extraction of uranium from aqueous phosphoric acid medium using (2-Ethyl hexyl) Phosphonic acid, mono (2-ethyl hexyl) ester (PC88A) and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) individually as well as their synergistic mixture in different diluents. The various experimental parameters are investigated to optimize optimise the suitable extraction conditions. Results indicate that a synergistic mixture of 0.90 M PC88A + 0.15 M TBP in xylene, can be used for the extraction of uranium from low phosphoric acid medium. Back extraction studies reveals that among all the common strippants used, 0.50 M solution of (NH4)2CO3 was most suitable. The synergistic mixture of 0.90 M PC88A + 0.15 M TBP as extractant system and 0.5 M (NH4)2CO3 as strippant is used to recover uranium from a conditioned wet process phosphoric acid and from actual radioanalytical waste generated during uranium analysis by modified Davies–Gray method. The recovery is found to be around 80% from conditioned WPA whereas better than 90% from modified Davies–Gray waste.