Continuous liquid-liquid extraction of nickel from simulated electroless nickel plating liquid wastes by using a counter current emulsion flow extractor

Nagano, Tetsushi  ; Mitamura, Hisayoshi; Yamashita, Yuji; Yanase, Nobuyuki; Suzuki, Hideya; Naganawa, Hirochika  

Simulated electroless nickel plating liquid wastes have been processed by using an emulsion flow extractor of a counter current type with a special focus on influences of dilution of the liquid wastes on the extraction performance. The emulsion flow extractor provides an efficient liquid-liquid extraction by sending solutions without additional stirring or shaking. A solvent used in the present study was Shellsol D70 solution containing LIX84-I as an extractant for nickel and PC88A as an accelerating agent. As a result, it was found that increasing degree of dilution with water resulted in improvement of nickel extractabilities obtained from the emulsion flow experiments with a maximum value of 96% as well as those obtained from batch experiments. Droplet sizes at the lower and the upper sides of emulsion phases, estimated by using high-speed microscope, were 214 36 m and 415 110 m, respectively.