EFFECT OF MISCIBILITY-TO-EXTRACTION TEMPERATURE RATIO ON SELECTIVITY,REFINING POWER AND OVERALL PROCESSING SOLVENT INDEX IN SOLVENT-EXTRACTION

The effects of the miscibility-to-extraction temperature ratio (T-m/T- E) and the amount of antisolvent have been investigated with special r eference to solvent selectivity, refining power and the overall proces sing solvent index (K-PSI). It has been observed that, for every solve nt, there exists an optimum value of T-m/T-E, where the maximum qualit ative and quantitative improvement could be obtained. The importance o f the index K-PSI in solvent extraction has been emphasized and this i ndex has been used for the optimization of important process parameter s, such as the miscibility-to-extraction temperature ratio T-m/T-E and the amount of antisolvent. A regression analysis approach has also be en made to correlate the overall processing solvent index with the mis cibility-to-extraction temperature ratio.