Extraction and recovery of rhodamine B, methyl violet and methylene blue from industrial wastewater using D2EHPA as an extractant

The extraction behavior of cationic dyes namely rhodamine B (RB), methyl violet (MV) and methylene blue (MB) from industrial wastewater has been investigated using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) in hexane as a carrier. The extraction of cationic dyes increases with decreasing feed phase pH and increasing D2EHPA concentration in organic phase. The stripping percentage of dyes using acetic acid as the stripping agent from loaded D2EHPA was found to increase with increasing acid concentration. 98% stripping efficiency of dyes was achieved with 8.5 mol/L acetic acid solution at an organic:aqueous phase ratio (O/A) of 2:1. Parameters examined include D2EHPA concentration, effect of diluents, effect of pH, effect of initial dye concentration, equilibration time, and various stripping agents, aqueous to organic phase ratio in extraction and organic to aqueous phase ratio in stripping.