The use of an ionic liquid in a Karr reciprocating plate extraction column

Ionic liquids offer an alternative to volatile organic solvents for extraction of a range of materials. This work examines the mass transfer performance of a Karr reciprocating plate column with an ionic liquid as an alternative solvent for the extraction of phenol from water. The results indicate that ionic liquids can be used in existing solvent extraction equipment and that existing correlations and models can be used to predict mass transfer performance.

▸ Ionic liquids can be used in commercial solvent extraction equipment. ▸ Models to describe the mass transfer performance with an ionic liquids are proposed. ▸ The hydrodynamics follow theories derived for conventional organic/aqueous systems.