Selective recovery of uranium from THOREX feed by hollow fibre supported liquid membrane technique containing di(2-ethylhexyl) isobutyramide (D2EHIBA) as the carrier

Abstract

Abstract Hollow fibre supported liquid membrane (HFSLM) studies were carried out for the selective recovery of uranium from THOREX feed solution (0.2 g/L U+200 g/L Th+0.03 M HF+0.1 M Al(NO3)3 at 4 M HNO3) using di(2-ethylhexyl) isobutyramide (D2EHIBA) as the carrier and distilled water as the strippant. About 85% of uranium was selectively transported into the receiver phase in 30 min with <1% contamination from thorium. On the other hand, under identical conditions of feed and strip solutions, about 90% of uranium was recovered in the same time when 5% TBP (tri-n-butyl phosphate) was used as the carrier, but a relatively large amount of thorium (>10%) was also co-transported to the product side. Strip phase acidity analysis revealed significant amount of acid co-transport with both the carriers. Acid transport was found to increase with the total salt content of the feed solution. The transport of metal ions was explained with the help of a theoretical model. Stability of the liquid membrane was also studied over about 5 d for long term reusability.